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Archon - Archon: An Archon is the leader of a Drukhari Kabal, the organisation that serves as the heart of the standard Drukhari raiding force as well as the primary political unit within the Dark City. The Archons of the Drukhari Kabals are the true lords of Commorragh. They sit at the apex of the Drukhari hierarchy that controls the Dark City and the Labyrinthine Realm of the Drukhari portion of the Webway.Each wields enough political influence to collapse portions of realspace into the Warp, stall the progress of an Imperial Crusade or take the population of entire worlds as slaves.The overlord of a Kabal is always a potent foe on the battlefield, but he has attained his position not merely through martial prowess in the arts of war and violence but through consistently emerging as the victor in the most difficult game of all -- the byzantine intrigues that govern all things in the heart of the Dark City, sometimes known as the thyllian ai-kelethril, or "path of shards." Only the most ingenious survive long enough to kill their way to the top.In both word and deed, each Archon is as poisonous as a serpent, their mind as labyrinthine as the darkest reaches of the Webway. Such traits are a necessity, for to sit at the very peak of power is to make oneself a prominent target indeed.Though every Archon is a conceited, solipsistic megalomaniac convinced of his mental and physical superiority over all other beings, he will retain his position as an overlord of Commorragh for only as long as he can stave off the endless coup and assassination attempts of his rivals, enemies and his own Dracon lieutenants.One false move in the upper echelons of the Dark City is almost inevitably fatal, and so all Archons have an uncanny ability to predict the motives and schemes of others and take great delight in turning their rivals' traps against them in bloody and often spectacular ways.Despite the elaborate network of allegiances within the Dark City, the overlords of the Kabals run rings around those who seek to beat them at their deadly game. The endless ambitions of their underlings keep an Archon's paranoia as sharp as their own blades, and so it is in the service of treachery that all Archons truly excel, with their strategies stretching across millennia as centuries-old plots come to fruition.It is said by some that the Archons of the Drukhari could teach even Tzeentch, the Lord of Change, a thing or two about plotting for the long term. Some of the Archons known as the "Lords of Twilight," who govern from the highest spires of Commorragh, even claim to have seized their thrones in the times before the Fall of the Aeldari.These eldest of the Archons view the rest of their species with contempt; as little better than squabbling children. The Lords of Twilight do not suffer fools willingly. A single misstep in protocol may rouse an Archon to murderous wrath. In matters of maintaining their Kabal's hierarchy, Archons have been known to even prefer solutions that leave everyone less well-off if only to spite them.Yet revelling in the depths of suffering and madness for an eternity eventually extracts a price. Over the long Terran years that they have held the reigns of power or clawed their way up to hold their lofty positions, the Archons of the Drukhari have enjoyed the pain of others for so long that only a true atrocity invigorates them.Archons regularly lead full-scale planetary raids for their Kabals, as drinking in the agony of entire planets is the only way they can regenerate themselves. Thousands of slaves must be sacrificed for the eldest Archons every night and this still may not be enough to make the oldest and most corrupt look youthful once more.As a result, elder Archons usually cover their black-veined faces with masks. Some Archons' masks are stylised and beautiful; others are bloody, alien and terrible, fashioned from the flayed flesh of their rivals' faces.When the time comes to offer battle, an Archon will first stop at his weapons museums, savouring the process of selecting which of the baleful technologies of the Dark City -- Soul-traps, Agonisers, and Shadow Fields -- he will use to visit terror and pain upon the unwitting. Some Archons choose a different array of armaments for each engagement, indulging in the variety at their disposal.Others have used the same tools of slaughter for standard years, solar decades or even centuries, and continually find new ways to induce suffering with their favoured implements. One such weapon -- the Huskblade -- is a favourite of many Archons, for it evaporates the internal fluids of those it slices, causing their flesh to shrivel and crumble to dust in a most spectacular fashion.Thus accoutred, the Archon strides haughtily onto the battlefield, eyeing their enemies with utter disdain. The Archon's most favoured retainers and pets, each of whom specialises in its own preferred form of visiting death and pain upon others, accompany him into combat.Even the least of a Kabal's Archons can move like the wind, seeming almost to vanish from sight and reappear again when their blade has done its bloody work. Few mortals have ever seen a Drukhari Archon in combat -- and kept the tongue in their mouths to tell the tale. |
Archon - Court of the Archon: Kabalite lords surround themselves with coteries of favoured retainers, pets and bodyguards. From the looming, serpentine mercenaries known as Sslyth to packs of drooling, fang-mawed Ur-Ghuls from the haunted pyramids of Shaa-dom, such a retinue can be as varied as the tools in an overlord's torture chamber.Lhamaeans lurk in their master’s shadow, unobtrusive until the moment they strike, their poisoned blades slicing armour, flesh and bone.Medusae shuffle forth at their master's behest, foul parasitic fleshsacs bobbing in their wake as their visors spew nauseous anti-light that hurls foes into contraempathic comas.Though each member of an Archon's court is deadly in its own right, it is when these fiends are combined that they become a truly deadly instrument of their master's will.Depending on an Archon's personality, this court can be comprised of a highly eclectic group, but is usually drawn from among the following types of beings:Medusae - Medusae are visored slave-beings used to record the roiling emotions of the battlefield. However, these creatures, usually humanoid slaves with psychic ability, are actually only the physical hosts for the alien entities of the Immaterium that are the true Medusae. These creatures are empathic parasites and in their true forms look like a collection of brains and spinal cords layered one atop another. In their natural state they float through the Warp like jellyfish, a form of psychic plankton who feed on daydreams and nightmares. Medusae can latch onto a host that intruded into their realm, absorbing their emotions directly and providing a portal into realspace. Though meeting the gaze of a Medusae's host can cause immediate emotional hemorrhaging, these hybrid beings are extremely valuable in Commorragh, for they can absorb and store extreme sensations for the Drukhari to enjoy later. Consuming one of the Medusae's brain-fruits brings back all the exhilarating emotions of a raid or other experience as if it was happening once more.Ur-Ghul - Drukhari Archons maintain all manner of deadly xenos creatures in their courts, from worm-like Haemovores to greater Shaderavens, whose croaks and caws drive those who hear it insane. Though innumerable numbers of such hideous beasts prowl the dark ways of Commorragh, it is the Ur-Ghul that is the most frightening, a blind but dexterous troglodyte that originated on the world of Shaa-dom among its haunted and abandoned ziggurats. Once one of these whip-thin horrors gets the scent of prey in its rows of quivering, dripping scent-pits, it will not stop hunting that creature until either it or its prey has fallen.Lhamaean - An Archon may keep many strange humanoid beings as his courtesans, but the mysterious Drukhari sisterhood known as the Lhilitu are coveted above all others, for not only are they imaginative and passionate lovers but they are also masters of the arts of poison. Descending from the original Cult of Lhamaea, they draw from the knowledge of Shaimesh, the Father of Poisons, one of the Dark Muses. The presence of a Lhamaean in an Archon's court ensures his Kabal with a supply of the most virulent toxins which she will share with her Archon before each raid into realspace. It is said that even a kiss blown upon the wind by a Lhamaean courtesan can kill hundreds in its deadly path.Sslyth - As true Drukhari inevitably make extremely poor bodyguards as a result of their innately self-interested nature and penchant for treachery, most Archons employ the more reliable alien mercenaries who inhabit the Dark City to protect them from the constant coup and assassination attempts. Though Drukhari bodyguards can be found among every intelligent race of the galaxy, the most favoured are the Sslyth, massive serpent-bodied xenos whose race fell to the temptations of unbridled excess and the worship of Slaanesh many millennia ago. Since they possess two sets of arms, Sslyth mercenaries can wield enough guns and blades to easily counter any would-be assassin or usurper. Some Imperial scholars have noticed the unusual similarity of the Sslyth to a xenos race known as the Laer who were supposedly exterminated by the Emperor's Children Legion of Space Marines at the end of the Great Crusade in the early 31st Millennium. These creatures were nearly identical to the Sslyth and were also worshipers of sensual excess whose homeworld of Laeran was responsible for the initial corruption of the Emperor's Children and their Primarch Fulgrim by Chaos. What the connection might be, if any, remains unknown at this time. |
Archon - Notable Archons: Asdrubael Vect - Supreme Overlord Asdrubael Vect is the ruler of the Kabal of the Black Heart, the oldest and greatest of its kind. It was Vect who rose from his mundane life as a young warrior-slave to bring the old order of the Drukhari nobility crashing down and instituted the Kabalite system. So complete is Vect's stranglehold upon Commorragh as its ruling supreme overlord that none of these highly-placed subordinate archons dare challenge the supreme overlord's supremacy in anything but their most private dreams or fantasies. Even then, they do so with caution, for it is said that Vect knows well the scent of treachery, and reads the minds of lesser mortals like an open book. Considered the most devious of a race legendary for deviousness, Vect is possibly older than the Fall of the Aeldari. It was Vect who shaped Commorragh from a sprawling corsair port and collection of autonomous sub-realms into what it had become by the 41st Millennium, a vast and incalculably powerful and evil galactic metropolis located deep within the Labyrinth Dimension of the Webway. Among the murderous hierarchy of the Drukhari, and from the lowest of beginnings, Vect gained and holds on to his position with both an unmatched intelligence, murderous ambition and a talent for cunning that is said by some to rival that of the Chaos God Tzeentch. Vect knows the primary weaknesses of all the major intelligent races of the galaxy, and those of his own species most thoroughly of all. Quite simply, Asdrubael Vect is one of the oldest, most powerful, and most deadly beings to walk amongst the mortals of the 41st Millennium.Khadys Abrahak - Khadys Abrahak is the undisputed ruler of the Kabal known as the Lords of the Iron Thorn, the masters of the sub-realm of Pandaimon. Embittered remnants of a long-gone aristocracy, the Lords of the Iron Thorn are Commorragh's pre-eminent weapon crafters. Long ago, this proud and ancient Kabal were brought to their knees after an ill-fated rebellion against Asdrubael Vect by their then-master, Archon Qu. However, in the centuries since, they have rebuilt their power through ensuring the Kabal of the Black Heart remains well supplied with Iron Thorn war machines. It is said that the mark of the Iron Thorn upon a Raider's hull is akin to Aestra Khromys' brand upon the stock of a gun -- a mark of quality that is second to none.Akhara'Keth - Archon Akhara'Keth is the ancient ruler of the Kabal of the Bloodied Claw. Referred to as the "Ruler of the Void" by his subordinates, Akhara'Keth has remained in power over his Kabal despite over three hundred assassination attempts. Due to his age, many in Commorragh see him as weak, but his abilities at reading people have always left him one step ahead of any who have attempted to take his life. Because of these assassination attempts, Akhara'Keth is forced to stay secluded within the sanctum of his throne room. In the event of an attack, his large, ornate throne houses an anti-gravitic generator that lifts him up into a safe room above, while hidden chambers along the throne room's walls release his personal retinue of Incubi and Mandrakes to dispatch his enemies. It is said that his Kabal's ranks number in the thousands, and raid realspace daily, in order to supply their Archon with a sufficient quantity of souls to keep him relatively young.S'aronai Ariensis - Ariensis leads The Severed, a spacebound Kabal that left the Dark City hundreds of Terran years ago. They are more than familiar to the Imperium, as The Severed have plagued the systems of the Ghoroid Strip since time immemorial. Their Archon once botched a coup that cost him his place in the Dark City and most of his left hand. He defiantly refuses to regenerate his wound, and his warriors are often mutilated in the same manner, their left hands reduced to talons or replaced by augmetic claws. It is testament to Archon Ariensis' utter ruthlessness that, having lost such face before his followers, he managed to retain the reins of power. Indeed, in the days following his and his Kabal's exile from the Dark City, Ariensis faced challenges to his authority almost daily. Each was answered with sudden, shocking violence, the Archon making such hideous examples of his rivals that those who remained soon lost all desire to attempt coups of their own. Now The Severed are a force to be reckoned with once again. With his authority beyond dispute, Archon Ariensis has fought a centuries-long campaign against all who cross his path. His Kabal's pirate fleet -- once a ragtag collection of battle-damaged craft -- has become a sleek flotilla of hundreds.Dhariaq Bladetongue - Archon Bladetongue is the current ruler of the Kabal of the Pierced Eye.Cythrax - Archon Cythrax is the ruler of the Kabal of the Slashed Eye. His Kabal is known for its grudge against Lord Helion Sathonyx, a former noble of the Slashed Eye who was banished by the Archon after bringing an Eldar Farseer into their court. Though a fine prize, it was deemed too dangerous for even the Kabal, who accused Baron Sathonyx of putting the entire Kabal at jeopardy. Captured by the Kabal, Sathonyx was cast into the bowels of Commorragh. Gathering about him an army of exiles, dispossessed and rebels, Sathonyx rose to dominance over the Hellion gangs, and launched a year-long campaign against his former Kabal that nearly brought it to its knees. The Slashed Eye continued to pursue the former noble with bounty hunters and assassins, but somehow Sathonyx always managed to stay one step ahead of his enemies. The Slashed Eye is also known to have an intense rivalry with the Kabal of the Stolen Conscience, and constantly vie with one another over the control of Port Carmine, a contested and strategically important port city of Commorragh.Tliensic D'raque - Lord Tliensic D'raque is the monomaniac of the Kabal of the Wraithkind, a Kabal that has suffered a unique type of punishment inflicted by the ruling overlord of Commorragh, Asdrubael Vect, afer a failed attempt to secede from his rule. Once the rulers of the pleasure city of Aur-Ilithain, one of the satellite realms of Commorragh within the Labyrinthine Dimension of the Webway, the Wraithkind were extremely powerful until their daemon-courting Archon attempted to close his dark paradise off from the rest of the Dark City. By destroying the single hyperspatial bridge that led from the heart of the Dark City to the Cyclops Gate of Aur-Ilithain, D'raque announced his intention to secede from the rule of the Dark City's dictatorial overlord, Asdrubael Vect, the Archon of the Kabal of the Black Heart. The very next night six secret portals suddenly opened across Aur-Ilithain, and thousands of shadow-creatures spiralled through, chanting in an eldritch tongue. Before the next dawn, Vect's ethereal allies had plunged the pleasure city and its denizens into a half-real state slightly out of phase with the rest of the Webway. The Wraithkind were forever altered, changed into night-shrouded fiends similar toMandrakes that can only feed upon the pain and despair of others when they step out of the Webway into the material world. When they do so, the venting of their frustrations upon the "lesser races" of the galaxy is truly shocking to behold.El'uriaq - The self-proclaimed Emperor of the sub-realm of Shaa-dom, having grown steadily in influence and power, El'uriaq declared himself more worthy of rule than Asdrubael Vect in 984.M37. Vect publicly vowed that all of Shaa-dom would feel the edge of his blade, much to the amusement of El'uriaq's famously well-funded and elite forces. Three solar days later, a Warp rift opened suddenly above the satellite realms and a burning Imperial Navy Battleship thundered downward, plunging deep into the hidden city's heart before its Warp-drive detonated. The palace-fortress of El'uriaq was torn apart. The Warp rift allowed Daemons to invade the city, and in a matter of a single solar week the devil-haunted realm of Shaa-dom is reduced to cinders. Vect was reported to have allowed himself a rare smile at the moment of its fall. In the latter 41st Millennium, Archon Xenial of the Kabal known as the Blades of Desire would conspire with Archons Nyos Yllithian of the Kabal of the White Flames and Kraillach of the Kabal of the Realm Eternal, in order to usurp Supreme Overlord Vect. To accomplish this monumental undertaking, the Blades of Desire aided Archon Yllithian in the resurrection of El'uriaq. The master Haemonculus Bellathonis, the most capable Haemonculi at resurrecting Dark Eldar who have been long dead, discovered that El'uriaq's body could be restored if a pure Eldar Exodite soul was captured and tortured sufficiently. Yllithian and his co-conspirators captured an Exodite soul and were able to successfully resurrect the long-dead Tyrant of Shaa-Dom. But soon, the resurrected Archon began to usurp the authority of Yllithian, and gained a strong following within the White Flames as well as a loyal following throughout the Dark City with his charismatic speeches and manipulative genius. Though the resurrected Archon retained his old personality and charisma, he also now maintained potent psychic powers. Yllithian eventually discovered that El'uriaq was also in fact possessed by a powerful Daemon. To make matters worse, the Daemon was hell-bent on causing a Dysjunction -- collapsing the boundaries between the Warp and the interdimensional space which held the Dark City, allowing the Neverborn to spill into the Webway and consume Commorragh. Whether or not this comes to pass, remains to be seen.Gharax - Archon of the Kabal of the Crimson Blossom, Gharax is known to have led his Kabal in a realspace raid by utilising a Webway portal which led to the tunnels deep below the surface of the planet Bukehall in the Teramus System. The Dark Eldar formed a dark alliance with the human pirates there, providing them Lance weapons and a drug called the Red Sacrament (known colloquially as "Red Sacra"), in return for human slaves taken from captured vessels. Unfortunately, many warriors of the Kabal were killed by a cunning ambush by the Space Marines of the Deathwatch, the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos. It is believed that their Archon somehow managed to effect his escape during the ambush.Surasis Grief - Archon of the Kabal of the Dark Mirror, Surasis Grief is known as the "Lord of the Skies" in the Dark City of Commorragh. Formerly a Reaver pilot, he won the Sec Maegra Marathon by overloading his Jetbike, causing it to explode, which killed the final racers. Grief became the first Reaver pilot ever to cross the finish line on foot. He later invented the Tantalus, an assault skimmer that is somewhat larger and more complex in design than the standard Raider, and accordingly better armed. Its distinctive twin-hulled design also houses powerful engine-reactors slaved to enhanced drives and its unique scythevane armament. With this deadly assault craft, Grief led his Kabal, along with his son and daughter Roteus and Nitholeth, on a rampage that saw them ransack parts of the Dark City. But like all high fliers, Grief had young pretenders, constantly challenging his power. Most notably was the Nightspur Covenant, a group of Reaver Champions led by the former Arena Champion Ciav. Grief took part in a death race that inevitably saw him bested by Ciav who used a fractal web to teleport the Tantalus to safety while sending Grief plummeting to his death. The Archon was succeeded by his children as the rightful rulers of the Dark Mirror, although it was noted by Ciav that the Kabal would unlikely survive its new and avaricious masters.Kelithresh - A would-be rival of Asdrubael Vect, in 677.M36, Vect tricked Archon Kelithresh into opening a casket that had ostensibly been presented as a tithe. Held precariously in the collapsing field of the casket was the unstable essence of a black hole. Kelithresh's entire realm was plunged into a howling, yawning vortex.Khargiel - Archon Khargiel was ruler of the Kabal of the Bleaksoul Brethren. In 226.M41, the infamous Succubi Lelith Hesperax issued a challenge to the Dark City -- should anyone produce an inhabitant of realspace that could pose her a genuine challenge in the arena, that individual would be honoured beyond their wildest dreams by Hesperax herself. The competition sparked by this challenge was immediate, violent and widespread. Archons lead raiding parties to strike at the length and breadth of the material realm, returning with ever mightier champions and deadlier monsters trammelled in their holds. Having defeated all challenges brought before her, finally Khargiel presented Hesperax with a foe that could answer her challenge. In an especially daring and costly raid, Khargiel kidnapped Brother Captain Cadulon of the Iron Knights Space Marine Chapter. Known as the Saint of Blades, Cadulon is an exceptionally talented swordsman who has twice been declared victor at the ritual Feast of Blades. The duel lasts for over six solar hours before Cadulon finally falls, leaving Hesperax victorious with but a single, bloody cut across her midriff. Amid the sudden hush, Archon Khargiel descends to the arena floor to accept his reward. Yet his look of triumph curdles as Lelith kicks the fallen Space Marine's blade across the floor to land at the Archon's feet, explaining that the greatest honour she can bestow is the deadly kiss of her knives. To the amusement of the crowd, Khargiel is lucky to last six solar minutes.Aestra Khromys - Aestra Khromys serves as the ruler of the Kabal of the Obsidian Rose, who controls the greatest swathe of weapons shops in the Dark City. Though the inventive genius of their Archon, the Obsidian Rose maintain a deathgrip on the Commorrite arms trade. Khromys is an exceptionally skilled artisan in the field of weapons manufacture, and a blade or pistol bearing her signature mark will sell for a huge price in slaves and souls. Yet she was not always the Kabal's leader. Indeed, having failed to bend the knee to the Obsidian Rose's previous master, Archon Vhloriac, Khromys was flung into the Kabal’s vast weapons shops to suffer death by ennui. Yet Aestra worked tirelessly to produce perfect weapons until eventually she and her fellow weaponsmiths were called upon to present their work as tribute to Vhloriac himself. The coup that followed was executed with exceptionally crafted hidden weapons, Khromys and her retinue gunning down the Archon and his guards when their own firearms mysteriously failed to fire.Zaergarn Kul - Archon of the exiled Kabal of the Splintered Talon and the master of the Nexus of Shadows, Zaergarn Kul was once a favoured son of Commorragh for many long centuries, but eventually the wheel of fortune inevitably turned against him and he angered a number of more powerful factions within the Dark City. He led his Kabal into exile instead of seeing it destroyed, and immediately began seeking a new refuge from which he could consolidate his power. To this end, he sought Salaine Morn, whose Kabal of the Shadowed Thorns had recently uncovered the Gaelan Sphere, and offered her much-needed strength of arms to help claim it. Together, the two Archons discovered and claimed the Nexus of Shadows as their own dominion. Unfortunately for Salaine, it was not an outside force or an alien that was to oust her from power. In the end Zaergarn Kul usurped her, and exiled her once more into the Webway before she could do the same to him. For many of the inhabitants of the Nexus this change in power meant little, especially for the slaves, to whom one Dark Eldar Archon is much the same as another. Zaergarn Kul is the master of the Nexus of Shadows in name, but in name only. For years, since his demise at the hands of a Mandrake sent by Salaine Morn during their power struggle, his soul has been trapped within the twisted heart of the voidship, The Soul Reaver. While The Soul Reaver draws power from all of those who die within the Nexus of Shadows, Zaergarn's assassin attacked him while he was observing the vessel's tormented heart, bathing in the pain that exuded from it. Since that day, Zaergarn's essence has simmered and seethed, trapped within the heart of the voidship but unable to lash out at those who have wronged him because the Nexus of Shadows pulls out all of the energy that the vessel collects.Vhane Kyharc - A narcissist without equal, Archon Kyharc is the ruler of the Kabal of the Black Myriad. In 399.M41, he released the Doppelganger Virus on the planet of Phlogiston VI. This transmorphic plague rewrites the biology of every living creature on the planet, forcing their features to reform in the likeness of their alien conqueror.Kraillach - An ancient Archon, Kraillach led the Kabal of the Realm Eternal. In the late 41st Millennium, he conspired with Nyos Yllithian of the Kabal of the White Flames and Xelian of the Blades of Desire to overthrow the tyrannical rule of Asdrubael Vect. To achieve their ends, the Realm Eternal aided Nyos' mission to resurrect the infamous El'uriaq, the legendary tyrant ruler of the shadowy-realm of Shaa-Dom. However, Vect's agents were able to pit the Realm Eternal and the Blades of Desire against one another by staging an attack upon Kraillach's fortress, making it appear as if Xelian was behind it. This drove the venerable Archon to paranoia. In retaliation, the Realm Eternal assaulted the Blades of Desire's fortress in return. Due to the fear and paranoia that gripped the Archon, the management of the Kabal fell to his trusted Incubi lieutenant Morr. The Kabal itself was eventually destroyed when Morr discovered that Kraillach had become possessed by a Daemon following his encounter with the resurrected El'uriaq. This caused the loyal Incubi to strike down his possessed master. Following the Archon's death, the Kabal broke into warrior factions and internecine fighting.Vraesque Malidrach - The self-styled "Murderprince of the Poisoned Crown," Archon Vraesque Malidrach is the Ruler of the Kabal of the Flayed Skull. Malidrach began his long and dishonourable career as a half-born Reaver in the arena of Khad Mhetrul, the Bitterspire. With his signature brand of high speed violence, Malidrach has fought his way to mastery of his own Kabal, the Kabal of the Flayed Skull. He specialises in airborne warfare, preferring to slaughter his foes in swift, shocking raids. As such his Kabal boasts a great many Reavers, Razorwing Jetfighters and Voidraven Bombers, and competition is fierce to claim the first blood spilt in any raid. The Flayed Skull once famously conquered the world of Thrandium without a single Kabalite setting foot upon the ground.Malys - Led by the intellectual she-devil known as Lady Malys, the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue enjoys a position right at the forefront of Commorrite society. Their number includes many Trueborn -- the rare naturally-birthed Dark Eldar who are the closest to nobility in Commorite society that Vect's mercilessly-enforced Kabalite system will allow. The whispersmiths have it that the Lady has her own mysterious patron, for those bold or foolish enough to eavesdrop on her personal chambers have reported two distinct voices when only one lifesign registers within. Few such spies survive long, for Lady Malys has her little ways, and she is invariably several steps ahead of the competition. The only being Malys has thus far proven incapable of second-guessing is her ex-lover, Asdrubael Vect -- though in recent years, even that is beginning to change.Iremeryss - Iremeryss is the ruling archon of the Drukhari Kabal of the Reaving Tempest. The Reaving Tempest was very active carrying our realspace slave raids on the worlds of the Koronus Expanse in the Segmentum Obscurus at her direction. The Dracon Marazhai Aezyrraesh was a member of this kabal who found himself outmaneuvered by his rivals. Imprisoned in Commorragh, Aezyrraesh formed an alliance of convenience with another individual trapped in the Dark City, the Rogue Trader of House von Valancius.Salaine Morn - Salaine Morn is the current Archon of the Kabal of the Shadowed Thorns, an outcast Dark Eldar Kabal. After being exiled from Commorragh, the Archon spent years wandering the Webway with her fleet, raiding worlds and looking for a place to claim as her own. Eventually her Kabal stumbled upon the Gaelan Sphere, an ancient relic of a long-forgotten age of technology. The size of a small moon, covered with towers and antennae, the sphere was crafted around a solid core, the remnants of some mineral rich asteroid that its automated systems are slowly eroding away as it adds more and more levels to the sphere. Unfortunately for Salaine, the sphere's defences and legions of Servitor guardians were too numerous and powerful for her Kabal alone to overcome. Thus, Salaine forged an alliance with Zaergarn Kul and his Kabal of the Splintered Talon, and together they purged the city of its ancient human defences, destroying that which they could not control and sealing away the areas that they could not inhabit. Eventually, the Dark Eldar built the Nexus of Shadows, a dark and dangerous artificial world that is controlled and partially developed, and populated with some of the worst xenos to ever crawl out of the Koronus Expanse. The city has festered and grown into a common port for the Dark Eldar and those who trade with them. As a base, it provides an excellent and well-hidden locale to raid the nearby Koronus Expanse, Calixis Sector, and even the Screaming Vortex, while its place within the Webway gives it access to hundreds more worlds scattered across the Segmentum Obscurus and beyond. Unfortunately for Salaine, it was not an outside force or an alien that was to oust her from power. In the end Zaergarn Kul usurped her, and exiled her once more into the Webway before she could do the same to him. For many of the inhabitants of the Nexus this change in power meant little, especially for the slaves, to whom one Dark Eldar Archon is much the same as another. She finds it utterly distasteful that she and all those she commands are exiles from the Dark City and now even the Nexus of Shadows. At her grudging command, the warriors of her Kabal have turned to mercenary work, selling their efforts to lesser beings as part of a plan to regain the power she once possessed.Tahril - Archon Tahril is the leader of the Kabal of the Black Heart within the Kaurava System, his base of operations is located at the edge of the system on a moon called Lacunae which orbits Kaurava IV. Although he is accompanied by Asdrubael Vect (the Archon of the Kabal of the Black Heart and the current Supreme Overlord of the Dark City of Commorragh) who is Tahril's superior, it is Archon Tahril who oversees the coordination of the raid on the system while Asdrubael oversees the overall campaign from the relative safety of Lacunae. Like his fellow Archons, Tahril is naturally a very cruel and sadistic being, who delights in conquering and enslaving many of the worlds within the system, as well as fighting various other factions (such as the Imperium, Eldar and Orks) within the region. In battle, Archon Tahril is surrounded by his bodyguard comprised of elite Incubii.Thyndrak - An insane female Archon of the Kabal of the Last Hatred, in 327.M41, Thyndrak launched a raid on the Hive World of Tamantra's Folly. During the fierce fighting between her Kabalite forces and the Tallarn 8th Infantry, Archon Thyndrak abducted the planet's tyrannical governor and his entire sadistic household. The luckless abductees were fitted with neural restraints, dressed in improbable and torturous finery, and installed in life support tubes built into the ceiling of Archon Thyndrak's grand ballroom. Trapped in an agonising half-life, the human nobles could be lowered down to the Archon's dance floor at will on wheezing brass armatures, their mere presence leaving the hall awash with an aura of pain and misery that the Commorrites find most refreshing. Needless to say, Thyndrak's new toys were something of a coup, her guests delighting in dancing and frolicking with the whimpering humans amid the mocking laughter of their peers.Thysk - Archon of the Kabal of the Bloody Storm, in 864.M41, Thysk led his Kabal against the Feral World of Vandred, from which the Angels Sanguine Space Marine Chapter recruited new aspirants. Sure enough, a strike force of Angels Sanguine made planetfall within days, yet unknowingly they played into the Archon's hands. Thysk released a blood-plague acquired at great cost from the Haemonculi Coven of the Altered, a virus that tapped directly into the tragic gene curse of Sanguinius' sons. Aware of their madness but unable to stop, the Angels Sanguine butcher and devour those they came to save before falling upon each other, while the Dark Eldar drink in the agony, terror and despair.Kiliarq Tongueblade - Archon Tongueblade is the lord of the Kabal of the Lacerated Eye.Xelian - Xelian is the battle-hungry warrior-queen of the Kabal of the Blades of Desire, a notable Dark Eldar Kabal known to employ large number of Wyches within its ranks as well as Hellions and Reaver packs, that took part in many realspace raids. Due to their large abundance of Wyches and slaves, the Blades of Desire operated one of the premiere gladiatorial arenas in the Dark City. Their Archon Xelian opposed the rule of the tyrannical despot Asdrubael Vect, and conspired with Archons Nyos Yllithian of the Kabal of the White Flames and Kraillach of the Kabal of the Realm Eternal, in order to usurp Vect. To accomplish this monumental undertaking, the Blades of Desire aided Archon Yllithian in the resurrection of El'uriaq, the legendary tyrant of the destroyed sub-realm of Shaa-Dom. However, before their plot could be executed, several Wych assassins (more than likely agents of Vect) armed with the deadly Plague of Glass, were able to pit the Blades of Desire against the Realm Eternal by staging an attack upon Kraillach's palace and making it appear that Xelian was behind the audacious attack. This forced the aging Archon Kraillach to confront Xelian en masse, in a desperate attempt to save face or risk being seen as a weak leader by his own Kabal. As the Realm Eternal's forces approached the fortress of the rival Kabal, rogue Hellions and Reavers (also likely Vect's agents and feigning allegiance to Xelian) attacked Kraillach's forces, forcing the two Kabals into a bloody standoff that was only broken when Archon Yllithian appeared and forced a parlay between the two warring factions in order to salvage the situation. Though the two Kabals were convinced by Yllithian that Vect was really the one behind the recent events that pitted the two opposing Kabals against each other, Xelian demanded an honour duel with Krailach in order to satisfy her besmirched honour. With no alternatives, the aging Archon faced Xeilian and was soundly beaten, suffering several mortal wounds that forced him into an extended stay in a regeneration chamber of the Haemonculi. The defeat of Krailach and his Kabal did much to boost the reputation of the Blades of Desire, and soon many gangs of Hellions and Reavers pledged their allegiance to Xelian. Despite her success and the recent victory over a rival Kabal, her own Kabal was very nearly shattered when Xelian was almost killed during what was originally meant to be a routine combat exercise with the Wyches of her Kabal, after their plot to overthrow El'uriaq came to fruition.Xerathis - Xerathis is the lord of the Kabal known as the Broken Sigil. This Kabal is synonymous with acts of discord. Lord Xerathis is looked down upon by his rivals for the predictability of his strategies. True enough, his Kabalites are not above sky-writing, blanket-bombing with hallucinogenic gas or hijacking communications channels to ensure their victims are frightened half to death before the invasion starts in earnest. Yet the Kabalites of the Broken Sigil maintain that the price they pay in forewarning the enemy is far outweighed by the rich feast of fear that awaits them when the onslaught begins. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Broken Sigil are amongst the most feared and infamous of the Kabals, especially amongst the worlds of the Imperium. Entire conclaves of Ordo Xenos Inquisitors seek their demise, and on multiple occasions Lord Xerathis has found himself the personal quarry of Deathwatch Kill-teams. If this concerns the toweringly arrogant fearmonger, he conceals it well. Instead, Xerathis boasts of the fine slaves such post-human warriors make, and insinuates knowingly that, with the correct persuasion, even Space Marines can be made to cower in fear.Vorl-Xoelanth - Vorl-Xoelanth is the ruler of the Kabal of the Dying Sun, one of the oldest Kabals renowned for their overweening pride and disdain for anything that has not endured for millennia. The Kabal of the Dying Sun possess ancient fragments of forbidden arcana, heirlooms from the days of the Eldar Empire of old. Their stronghold -- the Pinnacle of Disdain -- is an impenetrable mountain of elegant, buttressed armour and echoing chambers, within which the Kabal hide their darkest secrets. These timeless artefacts, hidden away in shadowy vaults, possess the power to kill stars, suck the life-force from worlds and exterminate whole races of sentient beings.Yaelindra - The lord of the Kabal of the Blackened Tear, this ruthless Archon gained notoriety in 724.M36 when the Blackened Tear poisoned the entire Imperial Hive World of Tybor III. After this vile act, Adrubael Vect granted Yaelindra a boon. Archon Yaelindra was elevated in prestige and allied herself with Asdrubael Vect and his ruling Kabal of the Black Heart. She also chose to take a spire of her own in High Commorragh, founding the Cult of Lhamaea and training an army of deadly courtesan warriors to further her deadly works.Nyos Yllithian - Nyos Yllithian was the Archon of the Kabal of the White Flames, originally one of the great ancient Eldar noble houses of Commorragh. In the late 41st Millennium, Yllithian conspired with Archons Kraillach of the Realm Eternal and Xelian of the Blades of Desire. It was Yllithian's desire to see the infamous El'uriaq, the legendary Tyrant of Shaa-Dom, resurrected. However, before they could enact their nefarious plot, Vect's agents were able to pit the Realm Eternal and the Blades of Desire against one another by staging an attack upon Kraillach's fortress, making it appear as if Xelian was behind it. This drove the venerable Archon to paranoia. In retaliation, the Realm Eternal assaulted the Blades of Desire's fortress in return, forcing the two Kabals into a bloody standoff that was only broken when Archon Yllithian appeared and forced a parlay between the two warring factions in order to salvage the situation. Continuing with his plans to resurrect El'uriaq, master Haemonculus Bellathonis, the most capable Haemonculi at resurrecting Dark Eldar who have been long dead, discovered that El'uriaq's body could be restored if a pure Eldar Exodite soul was captured and tortured sufficiently. Yllithian and his co-conspirators captured an Exodite soul and were able to successfully resurrect the long-dead Tyrant of Shaa-Dom. But soon, the resurrected Archon began to usurp the authority of Yllithian, and gained a strong following within the White Flames as well as a loyal following throughout the Dark City with his charismatic speeches and manipulative genius. Though the resurrected Archon retained his old personality and charisma, he also now maintained potent psychic powers. Yllithian eventually discovered that El'uriaq was also in fact possessed by a powerful Daemon. To make matters worse, the Daemon was hell-bent on causing a Dysjunction -- collapsing the boundaries between the Warp and the space which held the Dark City, allowing the Neverborn to spill into the Webway and consume Commorragh. Whether or not this comes to pass, remains to be seen.Ysclyth - Ruler of the Kabal of the Talon Cyriix, Archon Ysclyth is the last descendant of a pure-blooded lineage that had lasted for thousands of standard years. Having grown weary of the tyrannical rule of Asdrubael Vect, in 248.M41, Ysclyth attempted a coup against Vect by harnessing Daemons to his cause. But he soon learned his folly when Vect utilised an ancient failsafe which sealed off Ysclth's territory from the rest of Commorragh. Trapped with only the Daemon legions for company, Ysclyth and his Kabal were slowly torn apart. |
Archon - Wargear: Kabalite ArmourSplinter PistolClose Combat Weapon (Any type of Drukhari melee weapon)Plasma Grenades |
Archon - Sources: Codex: Drukhari (8th Edition), pg. 50Codex: Dark Eldar (7th Edition), pp. 15-16, 19, 23, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 43-44, 49, 51, 57, 60, 66, 73, 83, 86-87, 90, 92, 98, 106-112, 114-115, 119, 125, 128, 141-145Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), pp. 34-35Rogue Trader: The Soul Reaver (RPG), pp. 11, 119, 122Owlcat Games Twitter Feed - December 22, 2022Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader |
Arco-Flagellant - Arco-Flagellant: An Arco-flagellant is a specialised form of Servitor, created from an Imperial citizen who has been condemned to the capital punishment of arco-flagellation.In battle, Arco-flagellants are pumped full of a cocktail of narcotic stimulants that transforms them into frenzied whirlwinds of destruction utterly impervious to wounds.An Arco-flagellant is unleashed on the enemy in a suicidal charge that causes a maximal amount of damage. They are used individually or in packs by Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus and the Sisters of Battle as disposable terror shock troops. |
Arco-Flagellant - History: Arco-flagellants are human beings who have been condemned by Imperial justice to death, but whose crimes are not so severe that they are beyond all hope of redemption.Such criminals will be put to a merciful death after a lengthy and extremely excruciating ritual of torture intended to purify their souls, so that they may still find peace alongside the Emperor of Mankind in the afterlife. The sentence of arco-flagellation is only delivered to criminals on technologically advanced worlds due to the advanced resources it requires.A penitent condemned to arco-flagellation will be handed over to the Adeptus Mechanicus, who will lobotomise him and replace both his arms with cybernetic weapons, most often a pair of heavy industrial shears or a pair of Electroflails. They will then graft a whole battery of chemical injectors directly onto his spine, and install a Pacifier Helmet which contains a crude Mind Impulse Unit, designed to control the cyborg.As long as the Pacifier Helmet is active, the Arco-flagellant remains dormant, with what little remains of his mind filled with the hymns and holy iconography of the Ecclesiarchy. He will only be able to shuffle around if ordered to, but will otherwhise remain immobile in a deadened bliss.Once dragged into battle, the Pacifier Helmet will be deactivated, and the injectors in the Arco-flagellant's spine will start unleashing their cocktail of drugs (often a volatile mix of Barrage, Frenzon, Slaught and Spur) into his body. This cocktail will grant the flagellant enormous strength, speed and stamina, and will plunge him into an uncontrollable killing frenzy fuelled by the drugs and the terrible pain of his crude bionic grafts.The helmet will then only allow him to see any being who has not been tagged by his controller as friendly. The Arco-flagellant will rush toward the nearest living creature it can see and rend it to pieces, utterly uncaring of his own wounds or survival. He will continue to attack in this berserk manner until he has been mortally wounded, or his metabolism finally collapses under the assault of the deadly mix of chemicals constantly injected into it to maintain his frenzy.Arco-flagellants are either detached individually to the service of those Inquisitors who need an unsubtle tool for a vital task like the eradication of a nest of Heretics, or gathered in groups and unleashed upon the enemies of the Emperor in an orgy of slaughter that would put a Khornate Berserker to shame.Although the Sisters of Battle readily use Arco-flagellants, and rejoice in seeing criminals finding their redemption in death, they keep a wary distance from the creatures, and only use them when they are past considerations of collateral damage. To the Arco-flagellants, any living being who has not been specifically tagged by their controller as friendly is an enemy, and they will kill it accordingly, be it a true opponent or simply an innocent bystander. |
Arco-Flagellant - Notable Arco-flagellants: Damien 1427 - Damien 1427 is a human male and an Arco-flagellant. His trigger word is "Purgatus" and his true name has been expunged from Imperial records. He was once a citizen of the world of Siluria IV. Later, he became an iconoclast and gathered a heretical mob in the wilderness areas of that planet. After defying the Cardinal of Siluria IV and speaking out against the Planetary Governor, Tyron Rex, he was arrested and sentenced to Arco-Flagellation. His current status is unknown.Simeon 38X - Simeon 38X is an Arco-flagellant. Before his arco-flagellation he was a human male named Erin Octavus, a Grox farmer native to the Agri-world of Standalone. A sufferer of Gathalamor Syndrome, a condition in which subjects become determined to sacrifice themselves in the name of the Emperor, Octavus believed he was tainted by evil. After several attempts to placate and purge the farmer failed, Octavus, spurred on by his hallucinations, attacked Cardinal Simeon, for which he was tried and sentenced to Arco-flagellation. Octavus was renamed Simeon 38X after the Cardinal who had condemned him, yet he still suffered from Gathalamor Syndrome (it was speculated that his Pacifier Helm actually worsened his condition), which resulted in him not always responding to his trigger word, "Exculpate". This resulted in bloody consequences several times, but most notably during his service to Inquisitor Steinbeck. Following the grisly death of several members of the Ecclesiarchy as a result of this quirk, Simeon was almost terminated as too dangerous to be controlled. The Witch Hunter Tyrus intervened, granting him a stay of execution. Simeon was given a re-trial and sentenced to deathmasking. After this, he was held in stasis aboard Tyrus's own vessel, a ready instrument to be unleashed upon the Inquisitor's most hated foes. |
Arco-flagellation - Arco-flagellation: Arco-flagellation is a form of capital punishment in which the condemned is transformed into a living cybernetic weapon known as an Arco-Flagellant. The punishment is carried out by the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus but usually ordered by the Ecclesiarchy or the Inquisition.Arco-flagellation can be used to punish those who have committed any number of crimes against the Imperium of Man, but most commonly it is used to punish those who have expressed heretical views, and utterances or carried out heretical actions.The condemned are fitted with a variety of cybernetic weapons, including cutting claws, pneu-mattocks and electro-flails (the most popular choice). Further cybernetic enhancement, usually including canisters for the storage and dispensement of combat stimms, serve to enhance the subjects' destructive power. This augmentation is combined with extensive mental reconditioning, ensuring that the subject is reduced to a gibbering berserker with tremendous physical power and no interest in self-preservation.To control them, these subjects are also fitted with a Pacifier Helm, which connects directly to the cerebrum and spinal cord to calm and control the Arco-Flagellant when needed, usually projecting Imperial symbols, litanies, sermons and other elements of the Imperial Cult's theology into the individual's mind and allowing the subject to be only barely conscious of the outside world.Groups of Arco-Flagellants are often used as shock troops by the Ecclesiarchy and the Ordo Hereticus, their pacifier helms being deactivated by a trigger word whenever they are needed to fight. |
Arcus Launcher - Arcus Launcher: The Arcus Launcher is a rotary missile launching system that was once use by the Space Marine Legions on their Sicaran Arcus Strike Tanks during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. The Sicaran Battle Tank was an Imperial main battle tank and one of the most advanced armoured vehicles ever used by the Imperium, and the Arcus variant was no different. The Arcus Strike Tank was originally part of a program once initiated by the Primarch of the Ultramarines Legion, Roboute Guilliman, seeking to grant a Legion strike force access to highly specialised weapon systems without the need to employ numerous vehicles for each role. The Sicaran hull was chosen to mount the newly developed Arcus Launcher, which was capable of deploying with a wide range of warheads, each crafted to fulfil a distinct tactical niche during combat. The Arcus was intended to become the cornerstone of a new tactical doctrine the Master of Ultramar had begun to formulate, allowing small Legiones Astartes forces to operate without extensive support and in smaller numbers than during the Great Crusade.Despite production of the Arcus being limited to a few prototype vehicles at the onset of the Horus Heresy, and the doctrinal issues that kept it out of production on most major Forge Worlds, a number of Legion homeworlds produced small numbers of this variant. Of particular note is the inclusion of the Neutron-flux Warheads, a Terran development dating back to the years prior to the Emperor's alliance with Mars. This weapon saturated the silica stratum of the Cybernetica Cortex employed by Mechanicum Automata with xenon, causing terminal cascade failures in those systems. The continued production of these weapons is believed to be the cause of the Mechanicum's refusal to sanction the Sicaran Arcus Pattern, and its inevitable downfall. |
Arcus Launcher - Warhead Types: The Arcus Launcher was capable of being outfitted with a variety of warheads for its missiles, each crafted to fulfil a distinct tactical niche during combat. The following are all known warhead types usable by the Arcus Launcher. |
Arcus Launcher - Arcus Warhead: The standard warhead type for the Arcus Launcher, Arcus Warheads were a cluster munition that upon detonation would send many smaller explosive devices over a large area. These warheads were particularly effective against enemy infantry and light vehicles. |
Arcus Launcher - Skyspear Warhead: The Skyspear Warhead is an anti-air warhead that includes sophisticated tracking instruments that allow the warhead to steer the missile towards its target, effectively turning the Arcus into a surface-to-air platform. These warheads are effective against enemy aircraft. |
Arcus Launcher - Pyrax Warhead: Pyrax Warheads are heavy explosive-type munitions that are used in the removal of cover and heavy terrain. These warheads are effective at eliminating cover used by the enemy, along with the destruction of fortifications and terrain obstacles. |
Arcus Launcher - Neutron-flux Warhead: A Terran-made warhead dating back to the years prior to the Emperor's alliance with Mars, the Neutron-flux Warhead saturates the silica stratum of the Cybernetica Cortex employed by Mechanicum Automata with xenon, causing terminal cascade failures in these systems. The continued production of these weapons is believed to be the cause of the Mechanicum's refusal to sanction the Sicaran Arcus pattern vehicle for general use by the Imperium, and the switch to the use of the Rotary Missile Launcher on Relic Sicaran Arcus tanks still held in Space Marine armouries in the 41st Millennium. |
Arcus Launcher - Sources: Forge World Webstore - Legion Sicaran Arcus Strike Tank Forge World Webstore - Relic Sicaran Arcus Experimental Rules (PDF) Forge World Webstore - Legion Sicaran Arcus Experimental Rules (PDF) |
Ardaric Vaanes - Ardaric Vaanes: Ardaric Vaanes was a former Shadow Captain of the Raven Guard Chapter's 4th Company who turned Traitor and went on to serve with both the Red Corsairs Chaos Space Marine warband and the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion in his quest to battle the Imperium.Vaanes would later prove instrumental in aiding the Ultramarines Chapter in defeating the invasion of the Realm of Ultramar launched by the Warsmith Honsou and the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn during the 13th Black Crusade in ca. 999.M41. |
Ardaric Vaanes - History: Once a Shadow Captain of the Raven Guard's 4th Company, and a senior training instructor at the Ravenspire, for unknown reasons, Vaanes turned his back on his Chapter and followed the path of other Renegade Space Marines. He was declared Excommunicate Mortis in 934.M41. At some point in his travels he joined the Red Corsairs under the infamous Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart, but later left Huron's warband and swore allegiance to the Iron Warriors Warsmith called the "Dark Prince."Vaanes appeared as the leader of a ragtag group of other Renegades surviving on the Daemon World of Medrengard, homeworld of the Iron Warriors within the Eye of Terror. There he encountered former Captain Uriel Ventris and Sergeant Pasanius Lysane, two Ultramarines who had been carried to Medrengard after being exiled from their Chapter and forced to undertake a Death Oath within the hellish realm of the Ruinous Powers.Uriel offered Vaanes and his warriors a chance for escape, and, more importantly, a chance to regain their honour, if they would help destroy Warsmith Honsou's fortress of Khalan-Ghol. Midway through the mission, Vaanes recanted and abandoned Uriel and Pasanius, outraged that their actions had caused the death of most of his warriors. He only narrowly survived the fortress' destruction, and was found wandering the rubble by Honsou and the remains of his Grand Company. Instead of killing the Renegade Raven Guard, Honsou offered him a place at his side. Feeling he had been fooled and cheated by Ventris, Vaanes accepted.Vaanes was assigned to train The Newborn, a mutated clone of Ventris that Honsou had salvaged from the fortress, in unarmed combat. He participated in several of Honsou's subsequent actions, including the Skull Harvest on New Badab, the destruction of Tarsis Ultra, and the campaign to capture the Ultramarines' star fort Indomitable.Vaanes was invaluable to Honsou's invasion of Ultramar, leading a party of Loxatl mercenaries to scale Guilliman's Gate on Calth, to let the attacking Iron Warriors in. During the fight at the gatehouse, he was captured by Shadow Captain Aethon Shaan and his elite squad, who had been sent by the Raven Guard's Master of Shadows to apprehend Vaanes and bring him back to the Ravenspire for punishment. However, Vaanes said he had allowed himself to be captured, since he had decided he no longer wanted to fight for Chaos. Nor did he wish to rejoin the Emperor's service; all he wanted from Uriel, he said, was the release of death, and swore to guide the Ultramarines to Honsou's objective if Uriel would grant it to him.In the hidden tomb of the Ultramarines hero Remus Ventanus, Vaanes unexpectedly escaped his bonds and attacked Honsou's adjutant, Cadaras Grendel, and then Honsou himself. Honsou killed the Raven Guard with his Necrontyr arm, but bought Uriel and the other Ultramarines enough time to gain the upper hand.Afterwards, Captain Shaan felt unsure how to explain Vaanes' actions to the rest of the Chapter. Uriel suggested that Shaan tell the Master of Shadows the truth: that Vaanes had given his life fighting against the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. Shaan agreed, and asked Apothecary Selenus to extract Vaanes' gene-seed for return to the Ravenspire. Uriel noted that, in death, Vaanes' expression finally reflected a measure of peace that he had never felt in life. |
Ardaric Vaanes - Legacy: After their reinstatement to the Ultramarines, Uriel Ventris and Pasanius Lysane were questioned closely by Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius, who asked them if they understood the path that had led to their Death Oath and exile from the Chapter. As Uriel reflected, Vaanes stood out in his mind as a painful example of an Astartes who was not evil, yet could stray from the Emperor's service, become a Renegade and associate with the Imperium's vilest enemies, all for reasons which seemed good at the time.When Uriel confronted Vaanes after his capture, the Ultramarine saw that Vaanes had all the makings of a great man, yet remained flawed in some way that had turned him to evil. When Uriel asked "What happened to you?", Vaanes simply replied, "I'll never tell you."Shortly before the Iron Warriors' Invasion of Ultramar, The Newborn had encountered a psyker on New Badab who predicted that his fate was "Woven into the tapestry of a great hero's death, the fall of a star and the rise of an evil long thought dead." As the Ultramarines completed their victory over Honsou's forces, Uriel remembered these words and had no doubt that the great hero referred to was none other than Ardaric Vaanes. |
Arden - Arden: Arden is an enlisted Trooper of the fearsome Catachan Jungle Fighters of the Astra Militarum, famed throughout the warzones of the Spinward Front for his brutal heroics. |
Arden - History: One of the most famous close-quarters fighters to have served in the bloodied warzones of the Spinward Front was Trooper Arden of the Catachan CCCI (301st) Regiment. As a son of the most lethal Death World in the known galaxy, Arden was already a formidable fighter before most men had even learned to spell (a skill that, according to his fellow Catachans, Arden never actually acquired).It is reported that Arden once intercepted one of Catachan's lethal Flying Swamp Mambas and wrestled it to the ground before tearing its wings clean off, and that he once engaged a giant Blackback Viper, surviving a bite from this most poisonous of Death World predators and breaking its spine over his knee before collapsing from the effects of its (normally lethal) bite. These rumours are widespread but, like every story told of Arden before being recruited into the forces of the Astra Militarum, almost impossible to confirm. Records officially begin as soon as Arden was tithed into the Imperial Guard, and a whole new world of potential violence opened up before him.Reports logged by the Commissars attached to the newly raised CCCI Regiment suggest that Trooper Arden resented the training he received in use of the standard-issue Lasgun, preferring to wield his "Devil’s Claw", a metre-long blade favoured by the people of Catachan. Despite his misgivings, Arden's Sergeant insisted he at least attempt to train in the use of basic ranged weaponry, as a vulgar report on Trooper Arden later confirmed. For reasons unknown, however, a second report was filed only a solar week later, simply reading "never mind." Trooper Arden's first taste of battle (at least as an Imperial Guardsman) was on the planet of Ashen Regis, when his regiment was tasked with blocking an Ork advance across that world's primary continent.It was because of the bloody example set by Trooper Arden that the freshly formed Catachan CCCI exceeded all expectations, not only successfully blocking the advance of an entire arm of the Ork horde but pushing it back as well. Trooper Arden was to be found at the forefront of the advance, where reports credit him with slaying up to twenty-three brutal Ork warriors in hand-to-hand combat.Trooper Arden is confirmed to have served in at least eight other major battles with the CCCI Regiment before vanishing during an assault on an Ork Warboss' camp. However, persistent rumours have since placed him in no fewer than thirteen other major campaigns after his supposed disappearance. Whether these are the tall tales of Imperial Guardsmen or an intervention by the will of the God-Emperor Himself, remain unverified. |
Ardium - Ardium: Ardium is the sole Imperial Hive World of the Macragge System, the heartland of the Realm of Ultramar, the famed Sector Imperialis governed by the Ultramarines Chapter. Once deemed inviolable, Ardium and its three subterranean Hive Cities have recently become part of the battlefields upon which both the Ultramar Campaign and the Plague Wars have been fought. |
Ardium - History: For much of its history, Ardium has stood in the shadow of its far more influential neighbor, Macragge, the ancestral homeworld of the Ultramarines. At the beginning of the 42nd Millennium, the Hive World came to the attention of the Forces of Chaos, which launched two separate invasions in the wake of the opening of the Great Rift. Ardium is still recovering from both these events. |
Ardium - The Ultramar Campaign: In the wake of the destruction of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade, the Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon the Despoiler, launched a sizeable portion of his fleet in pursuit of those Imperial troops and their allies that had escaped destruction by entering the Aeldari Webway. With Macragge itself recently assaulted by the troops of the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn during the Invasion of Ultramar, the other worlds of the Macragge System were mostly left to fend for themselves.Ardium was invaded by the Bitter Sons, a splinter-faction of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion that had sworn allegiance to the Despoiler. Despite heavy resistance, these Chaos Space Marines conquered one of Ardium's three principal hive cities, Magmaria, and immediately began fortifying its winding, subterranean tunnel networks for the expected counterattack. Awakened from his state of near-death on Macragge by the artifices of the Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl and the power of the Aeldari god of the dead Ynnead, the Primarch Roboute Guilliman led the counter-invasion of Ardium after having repelled the won the Ultramar Campaign.Desperately outnumbered by the 4th and 6th Companies of the Ultramarines, the Bitter Sons stubbornly fought on and although they died to the last man, they inflicted significant damage to both their opponents and Magmaria's infrastructure. |
Ardium - The Plague Wars: With Ardium and the whole Macragge System still reeling from the blow struck against it, the Daemon Primarch Mortarion of the Death Guard Traitor Legion launched his own attack against the Realm of Ultramar, an invasion later named the Plague Wars. Once again, Ardium was invaded by the followers of Chaos; this time, it was the disciples of the Plague Lord, Nurgle, that threatened its security.While the Ultramarines aided in the planet's defence, they were powerless to prevent the Death Guard's Plague Marines from gaining a foothold upon Ardium. Guilliman firmly believed that the invasion of Ardium hid a terrible ploy, one that could threaten the outcome of the entire conflict. He sent Captain Felix and the newly founded 11th Company of the Ultramarines Chapter to liberate Ardium and foil whatever vile scheme Mortarion had concocted. Both Captain Felix and his warriors were Primaris Space Marines recently arrived in Ultramar who would soon prove their merit on the field of battle.Captain Felix discovered an unholy device on Ardium that was a mix of xenos technology and Chaos sorcery created using the knowledge of the ancient alien artefact known as the Hand of Darkness by Mortarion himself. This technology slowly transformed Ardium's unaugmented human population into hideous creatures of Nurgle. Launching a daring mission that ended in the device's destruction, the 11th Company later gained the upper hand against their their foes and broke the Death Guard's hold on the planet. |
Area Denial Node - Area Denial Node: An Area Denial Node is a form of static heavy-weapon placement which is employed by the T'au to defend vital strategic installations. Area Denial Nodes are able to provide massive screens of anti-armour and anti-personnel fire which only the most determined of enemies will survive. All of these nodes are controlled by advanced Drone intelligences which are able to utilise the weapon’s sophisticated targeting systems to their maximum potential.The use of Drone intelligences to coordinate the node’s weapon systems also means that the skill of Fire Warriors need not be wasted in simple garrison roles far behind the frontlines. The use of these automated weapons systems also prevents a higher cost in T'au lives, as it is far better to lose Drone-controlled weapons than risk the lives of valuable T'au warriors. |
Area Denial Node - Tactical Role: T'au strategic doctrine favours a fluid form of manoeuvre warfare over stationary defence, meaning that it is only in the most critical situations that a position will be defended to the last. The use of Area Denial Nodes allows mainline Fire Caste units to pull back safely in the face of overwhelming enemy attack, whilst still opposing the enemy's assault and punishing him for any gains he makes though the incredible firepower the nodes possess. Each node often forms part of a network of such emplacements, where the Drone intelligences can coordinate and combine the fire of solid-shot rounds from their Railguns with their neighbours.In this way, Area Denial Nodes are capable of providing fearsome and devastating point attacks that are capable of penetrating all forms of vehicle and infantry armour. In at least a dozen reported instances during their use on the various battlegrounds of the T'au Empire, Area Denial Nodes have disabled and destroyed enemy super-heavy vehicles. It is even reported that a battery of seven nodes engaged and destroyed an Imperial Warhound Scout Titan at the Battle of Dal'yth. |
Area Denial Node - Armament: All Area Denial Nodes are armed with turret-mounted, twin-linked Railguns like those mounted on other mobile heavy weapon platforms deployed by the T'au Empire. However, the Railguns mounted on these nodes are a non-standard variant that can fire solid-shot rounds with more than double the range of the Railguns mounted on other platforms, such as the XV88 Broadside Battlesuit. This allows the Area Denial Nodes to compensate for their static nature with an extreme potential threat range.The Railguns mounted on Area Denial Nodes can also fire explosive submunition rounds, like the Hammerhead Railgun. These rounds provide area saturation fire which is extremely effective against groups of infantry. However, the dispersed nature of their ballistic pattern means that the submunition rounds' range is diminished in comparison to that of the standard, solid-shot Railgun rounds. Nevertheless, the submunition rounds still maintain the effective long-range fire of the standard Railgun.Area Denial Nodes are also protected by a thick layer of nano-crystalline alloy armour comprised of a substance currently unknown to the Adeptus Mechanicus (equivalent to 40 millimetre composite/120 millimetre homogenous) named Fio'tak in the Tau Lexicon. |
Area Denial Node - Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: The technical specifications for this T'au unit have not been obtained or released by the Ordo Xenos. |
Arenos Karlaen - Arenos Karlaen: Arenos Karlaen, known as the "Shield of Baal," is the current First Captain of the "Archangels," the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter's 1st Company, and many consider him the greatest battle leader among the angelic host save for Lord Commander Dante. Karlaen is a wily Blood Angels Veteran with over four centuries of service to the Chapter. In his long service Karlaen has accrued victories over almost every enemy of mankind and, as Hive Fleet Leviathan looms large in the Cryptus System, Dante has turned to his strong right hand again. Karlaen has fought the Tyranid menace many times before and owns several of the Blood Angels' greatest victories against the Great Devourer. Whether wielding his relic Thunder Hammer, the Hammer of Baal, face-to-face against the foe aboard a Space Hulk, a beleaguered world or directing the wrath of the fleet in a decisive battle, Karlaen's tactical skill and controlled rage have proven a match for the Hive Mind over and over again. |
Arenos Karlaen - History: No Space Marine earns the mantle of Captain of the Chapter's 1st Company without the faith of his Chapter Master and the respect of his Battle-Brothers. Captain Karlaen has served the Blood Angels with distinction for over four centuries, ascending to the leadership of the Archangels after serving within the 1st Company for over a century of war and carnage. In his time he has gained the admiration of his peers and of Commander Dante himself. Arenos Karlaen possesses a keen tactical mind that has guided his brothers to victory time after time. It was this singular understanding of warfare that first drew the attention of his Company Captain and Commander Dante. While all other Space Marines undergo rigorous psycho-conditioning and constant tactical training, Arenos' abilities go beyond this. With a mere glance, he is able to gain the measure of a conflict and formulate an effective response, often drawing from the ancient teachings of the Codex Astartes as inspiration.As a young Battle-Brother, Karlaen first displayed his tactical acumen during the war for the world of Barestyr XIX against the Speed Freeks of WAAAGH! Kruggdak. When Karlaen's Sergeant was decapitated by an Ork Kannon, he assumed temporary command of his squad. Using the world's sky-bridge network as a battlefield, Karlaen trapped the xenos among the bridges' complex cogwork gates. Robbed of their mobility, the Orks became easy prey for the Space Marines and were quickly defeated. This action would be first of many to draw the eye of Dante. More victories followed, and with each one, Karlaen's renown among the Blood Angels increased. When Arenos entered the ranks of the Archangels, it was as a Veteran Sergeant of a Terminator Squad.At the Battle of Forlorn Falls, it was Karlaen's Terminators that led the counterattack that broke through the fortifications of the Iron Warriors. On Ivald XII, Karlaen held the line against the Orks of the Shattered Fang tribe, foiling their attacks one after another. The destruction of more than half a dozen Space Hulks can be laid at Arenos' feet, and since entering the 1st Company he has led many of the missions to purge the Imperium of these insidious threats. Doom of Vorgoth, Divine Purgotory and Twilight Aegis are names now synonymous with Karlaen, as he was the Captain responsible for clearing these Space Hulks with only a handful of Battle-Brothers. It was on the Doom of Vorgoth that Arenos was almost killed by the Necrogolem, a Nurgle Daemon of meat and metal. The vile creature had turned the Space Hulk into a playground of pestilence and disease, filled with myriad traps to ensnare the unwary. Karlaen would eventually destroy the creature by venting its sump-palace to the void and freezing the Necrogolem in a tomb of its own filth.Karlaen has also fought the creatures of the Tyranid Hive Fleets many times, having personally led a score of missions to defend worlds beset by the Great Devourer. For these reasons, Karlaen was chosen by Corbulo to lead a special mission upon the world of Phodia, which would see him tested beyond any situation he had faced before. Though Corbulo suspected Karlaen would face fearsome foes on the planet's surface, the Sanguinary High Priest had complete confidence in the Captain's strategic abilities and his utter dedication to duty. |
Arenos Karlaen - Wargear: Relic Terminator Armour - Tactical Dreadnought Armour is among the finest personal protection available to the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes and it has saved Karlaen's life many times over. This suit of ancient Terminator Armour is a mark of rank within the Archangels and a reward for his unyielding loyalty to the Chapter.Aureate Halo - Karlaen's Iron Halo is a relic of the Archangel Company's armouries and is known as the Aureate Halo. The halo is reputed to have been crafted during the Second Founding of the Space Marine Chapters.Hammer of Baal - Karlaen's Thunder Hammer is an ancient relic of the Blood Angels Chapter, given to him by Dante as a mark of his honoured place as Captain of the Archangels.Storm Bolter - The Storm Bolter is a functional and brutal weapon that Karlaen often uses to punishing effect in the close confines of a Space Hulk or the maelstrom of an open battlefield.Bionic Eye - Karlaen's bionic eye is a rare and potent piece of archeotech. A blessed relic of the Chapter, the mechanical eye can see in multiple spectrums and has been slaved to the optical-augurs of his Storm Bolter. As such, this archeo-bionic lens grants exceptional accuracy even against distant targets, allowing him to deliver accurate bursts of fire at long range almost without aiming.Frag GrenadesKrak Grenades |
Arenos Karlaen - Sources: Black Crusade: Angel's Blade (Campaign Supplement) (7th Edition)Blood Angels Painting Guide - Sons of Sanguinius (Supplement), pp. 6, 8-9, 11-15Codex: Blood Angels (7th Edition), pp. 20, 67, 81Dataslate: Captain KarlaenWhite Dwarf Weekly 45 (6 Dec 2014), "Brothers In Blood," pp. 43-50 |
Ares Gunship - Ares Gunship: The Ares Gunship, also called simply the Ares, was a type of anti-gravitic Imperial aircraft used by the Legio Custodes during the Unification Wars, the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. It developed a fearsome reputation at that time as a potent fire support weapon for Custodian infantry forces known to strike terror in those who faced it.It is unknown if the Orion is still in use by the Adeptus Custodes of the 41st Millennium. |
Ares Gunship - Role: During the Unification Wars, the Legio Custodes would amass in their fledgling battle ranks to fight by the Emperor's side, and though they were few, they were equipped with the finest weaponry and vehicles available to the fledgling Imperium. One such vehicle was the Ares Gunship, and it earned a fearsome reputation vanquishing the Emperor's enemies on Old Earth and hundreds of other worlds across the galaxy since.The Ares was frequently used as a terror weapon, bypassing enemy armies as it blazed over their lines concealed in the shadow produced by its photon-absorbing Eclipse Shields. Primarily, it was used to strike a decisive blow with its immensely destructive Arachnus Magna-Blaze Cannon against the monuments and edifices which an enemy culture held most dear to their hearts.Such was the infamy it earned in the Unification Wars that when the forces of Unification were embroiled in a solar-month-long standstill on the Antipodean Peninsula on Terra, the mere sight of a single Ares Gunship hovering above the domicile of that regime's chancellor led to the enemy's unconditional surrender to the Emperor. |
Ares Gunship - Unit Composition: 1 Ares Gunship |
Ares Gunship - Wargear: 2 Arachnus Blaze Cannons (Centreline mounts)Arachnus Magna-Blaze Cannon (Centreline mount)2 Infernus Firebomb Clusters (Ventral hull mount)Eclipse ShieldArae-Shrike |
Argel Tal - Argel Tal: Argel Tal was a captain of the Word Bearers Legion who served in the 7th Assault Company of the Serrated Sun Chapter. After the Word Bearers' chastisement by the Emperor on the world of Khur, and the subsequent "pilgrimage" undertaken by the Word Bearers' primarch Lorgar Aurelian into the Eye of Terror, the Serrated Sun Chapter was reduced to only three active companies in number after their sojourn into the Eye.Those members that returned from their journey returned changed. The direct favour of Lorgar was bestowed upon the survivors, who would later become known as the Gal Vorbak (Colchisian for "Blessed Sons"), and resulted in the elevation of their leader, Argel Tal, to the post of Chapter Master of the Serrated Sun.These "Dark Brethren" became the first of the Daemonhosts later known as the Possessed amongst the forces of Chaos. Argel Tal would be known as the "Crimson Lord" of the elite Gal Vorbak and of a similar elite unit of Possessed Chaos Space Marines called the Vakrah Jal. He would go on to take part in many major campaigns of the Horus Heresy, including the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V, the Shadow Crusade in the Realm of Ultramar, and the massacre on the World Eaters' primarch Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, where Argel Tal met his own dark fate. |
Argel Tal - History: Argel Tal was born in the village of Singh-Rukh on the world of Colchis, the homeworld of Primarch Lorgar Aurelian. Argel Tal's name meant "The Last Angel" in the Colchisian dialect of the southern steppe tribes, as he was the final child to be born in his family. Tal was inducted into the Word Bearers Legion of Space Marines by its First Chaplain Erebus, who at first had chosen him to become one of that Astartes Legion's Chaplains before he rejected that honour.Instead, Argel Tal eventually became the Captain of the 7th Assault Company of the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers. While aboard the light cruiser Orfeo's Lament alongside the former Cadian priestess and Daemon Prince Ingethel the Ascended, Argel Tal was among the first Humans of the Imperium of Man to discover the Realm of Chaos that existed in the Immaterium within the Eye of Terror Warp rift while the Serrated Sun Chapter carried out the Pilgrimage of Lorgar.While in the Immaterium, Tal was possessed without his knowledge, like many of his fellow Astartes in the Serrated Sun Chapter, by a Daemon, in this case one called Raum. Unlike the later possession of Daemonhosts by the malevolent entities of the Empyrean, this possession was less a brutal subjugation of the host's physical body than a symbiotic fusion of both beings on a spiritual level, essentially transforming the host into one of the first Possessed Chaos Space Marines.Indeed, Lorgar would later point to Argel Tal and his fellow survivors of the journey into the Eye of Terror as examples of what Mankind could become if Horus succeeded in overthrowing the rule of the Emperor of Mankind and delivering the galaxy into the service of the Chaos Gods. Tal eventually returned to his Legion after a 7-solar-month-long subjective ordeal in the Eye of Terror that lasted only moments for those of the Legion waiting in realspace for the Serrated Sun's return.During questioning by Lorgar, Tal detailed what he had experienced in the Eye of Terror, providing useful insight later used as the foundation for the heretical Book of Lorgar outlining worship in the Chaos Gods. In honour of his achievements, Lorgar made Argel Tal the Captain of his Gal Vorbak (the "Blessed Sons" in Colchisian) an elite cadre of Astartes made up of the surviving members of the Serrated Sun Chapter who were the first to wear the crimson colour on their Power Armour that would eventually become the standard colour called "Traitor's Red" for the entire XVII Legion after their turn to Chaos during the Horus Heresy.Argel Tal led the Gal Vorbak on Isstvan V during the infamous Drop Site Massacre against the Raven Guard Legion and their Loyalist allies, the Salamanders and Iron Hands. Argel Tal was the only Word Bearer trusted by the Legio Custodes warriors who had been tasked with watching over Lorgar by the Emperor of Mankind after the Primarch's betrayal of the Imperial Truth on the world of Khur. This made his ultimate betrayal of them all the more poignant when he was responsible for their murder after they discovered that the Word Bearers had become Traitors to the Imperium at Istvaan V.Sometime during the first 40 Terran years of the Gal Vorbak's existence before the battle on Istvaan V, Argel Tal become known as the "Crimson Lord" amongst the Astartes of the XVII Legion and later across the Imperium. The group of over 100 Remembrancers sent to the Word Bearers before the Drop Site Massacre already knew Argel Tal by this title, indicating that he earned it well before the start of the Heresy. |
Argel Tal - Death: During the Pilgrimage of Lorgar into the Eye of Terror, when the Primarch Lorgar followed the Serrated Sun into the Warp rift after they returned to report their experiences to him, he was shown many Chaos visions by the daemon Ingethel the Ascended of events that were soon to transpire or come to pass in a number of possible futures. This is especially true of some of the events surrounding the galaxy-spanning conflict known as the Horus Heresy, which occurred over 40 Terran years after the Pilgrimage.One of these visions included the Battle of Terra, the final battle of the Horus Heresy. Lorgar saw in this vision Argel Tal transformed in the midst of battle into a gargantuan daemon-possessed Astartes. In his daemonic form Tal appeared quite powerful and significantly larger and taller than his Primarch.The vision showed that the daemonic Tal would go on a bloody rampage through the ranks of an Imperial Fists squad before finally dying at the hands of the Primarch Sanguinius at the threshold of the Imperial Palace's inner Eternity Gate. Whether or not this vision came to pass is unknown, as visions granted by the Ruinous Powers are sometimes outright false or only contain a kernel of the truth.Following the events of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, Argel Tal was the sole surviving original member of the Gal Vorbak, having been seconded to the World Eaters Legion for temporary duty before the Word Bearers' assault on Calth. Argel Tal forsook his oaths to the annihilated Serrated Sun Chapter and gained permission from his Primarch Lorgar to form a newly constituted formation, known as the Vakrah Jal, the Chapter of Consecrated Iron, who rose from the ashes of Word Bearers companies devastated on the killing fields of Istvaan V.This new elite formation of Possessed Chaos Space Marines trained for solar months in the fighting pits aboard the World Eaters' flagship Conqueror. When they were finally deemed ready, Argel Tal led the Vakrah Jal in the Shadow Crusade, a joint military campaign conducted during the opening days of the Horus Heresy into the Realm of Ultramar by the Word Bearers and the World Eaters Legions.The two Traitor Legions proceeded to lay waste to the Ultramarines Legion's stellar empire in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, rapidly destroying twenty-six worlds in quick succession. This campaign ensured the success of the sorcerous Ruinstorm that had been conjured by the Word bearers during the Battle of Calth, which would ultimately divide the galaxy in two, effectively cutting Ultramar off from the rest of the Imperium of Man. This was intended to make it impossible for the Ultramarines and several of the other Loyalist Legions to travel through the Warp to reinforce the Loyalist defenders on Terra.During this campaign, Argel Tal fought alongside the World Eaters' 8th Assault Captain Khârn, whom he had developed a kinship with during the course of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, becoming "honour brothers" in the process. During one of the Shadow Crusade's early campaigns, the joint Traitor fleet was to assault the War World of Armatura, a vitally important planet that fed the Ultramarines Legion with recruits and munitions.Argel Tal also took part in the massacre upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria when the World Eaters Primarch sought to purge his hated homeworld of all life. Enraged by the lies that had been told about him over the last century, that he had abandoned his fellow gladiators out of cowardice on the day they had all been slain, Angron ordered his Legion and the supporting Vakrah Jal to kill everyone in the capital city of Desh'ea, the masters of which had once claimed to own him. Then they were to wipe out every other living thing on the cursed planet.Argel Tal eagerly took part in the slaughter, but at the height of this bloody campaign, the World Eaters and Word Bearers were confronted by the wrathful Ultramarines Legion, led by their Primarch Roboute Guilliman. Argel Tal was ultimately betrayed by the Word Bearers' First Chaplain Erebus, who viciously stabbed the Crimson Lord in the back with his Athame dagger.Erebus later claimed that Argel Tal's influence over his friend Khârn would prevent the World Eaters Assault Captain from embracing his fate, by becoming a servant of the Ruinous Powers, and that this would cost the Traitors the war.The Daemon Prince Ingethal the Ascended's prophecy given during the Pilgrimage of Lorgar was thus fulfilled -- Argel Tal indeed died "in the shadow of great wings," since he was slain in the shadow of a large Imperial Aquila located on top of the Imperator-class Titan, Corinthian. |
Argent Crusader - Argent Crusader: The Argent Crusader is a heavily modified Gladius-class Frigate that has served the Deathwatch since it first became active in the Jericho Reach. |
Argent Crusader - History: The Argent Crusader is an unconventional vessel, in that it conforms largely to the pattern of the Gladius-class frigate, a common enough escort in the fleets of Space Marine Chapters the length and breadth of the Imperium. Yet, the Argent Crusader differs in numerous details from the standard template for a Gladius.It is not known if these differences are the result of modifications and rebuilds carried out by the Deathwatch, or if the vessel represents a distinct and otherwise unknown sub-type of the standard Gladius.Almost all of the differences relate to internal systems, which are exponentially more efficient and effective than the standard systems the class employs. Power distribution is at least twelve percent more efficient and features numerous fail-safe redundancy systems.Fire control is fiendishly accurate and rates of fire far greater than would be expected. Many of the Argent Crusader's lance batteries are able to operate at higher outputs over longer periods of time than those of the standard Gladius.The ship's plasma reactor is rated as producing a yield of eight to ten percent over that of the standard pattern, and its cogitation core is, as far as is known, of an entirely unique type.Lastly, the Argent Crusader differs from other vessels of its class in that the nigh-preternatural efficiency of its machine systems means it needs far fewer crew than other ships of its size.Imperial Navy doctrine states that automated systems are too fallible in battle to be relied on, where crewmen can be called upon to perform any duty they are trained for.The crew of Space Marine vessels are generally more technically adept and the machine systems more resilient, resulting in fewer crew being needed. The Argent Crusader displays a finely honed balance between crew and machine systems that has yet to be upset even under the most severe circumstances. |
Argent Crusader - Battle Honours: The Argent Crusader has served the Deathwatch for at least as long as the Chapter has been operating the Jericho Reach, and it may have been constructed before the Apocryphon Conclave of Orphite IV brought about its founding.The vessel's cogitation core is known to contain numerous sub-archives deliberately sealed off to access, although several of these have, on occasion, unsealed themselves in a similar manner to the Omega Vault in the heart of Watch Fortress Erioch. |
Argent Crusader - Ship Layout: Even with its unconventional machine systems and reduced reliance on flesh and blood crew, the Argent Crusader's complement still numbers in the thousands. The mortal crew treats the Space Marines with the utmost respect, such that it is comparatively rare for a brother to encounter the ratings in the ordinary running of the vessel.A given Kill-team has regular contact with the conversii, but comes across the lower-ranked crew only when the ship is on defence watch or action stations.Most of the time, the interior of the Argent Crusader is serene, the crew keeping a respectful distance from the battle-brothers. The life-sustainer systems cycle sacred incense throughout and the bulkheads of the ship's companionways are etched with kilometre after kilometre of script listing the names and deeds of the Deathwatch of the Jericho Reach and beyond.Purity Seals and votive streamers are affixed to prominent machine systems and blessed regularly by the ship's Adeptus Mechanicus attendees so that they may never fail. The locations the battle-brothers are most likely to utilise in the hours before the Argent Crusader plunges into the Warp and during the subsequent emergency are covered below. |
Argent Crusader - Bridge: In form and structure, the Argent Crusader's bridge is solid and functional, reflecting the utilitarian nature of the Adeptus Astartes it serves. Yet, just like some individual Chapters adorn their standard pattern power armour with idiosyncratic decoration, so the bridge is unmistakably that of a Deathwatch vessel.As with much of the ship, the bulkheads are engraved with the names and deeds of countless generations of previous crew, and a riot of purity seals edge the most important of command terminals. The bridge is a large space, though not so ostentatiously massive as those of many equivalent-sized ships of the Imperial Navy.The space is dominated by a command throne atop a five metre tall plinth, above which is hung the bulbous and distended skull of an unidentified xenos creature.The throne is wrought to accommodate the physique of a Space Marine, and is only ever occupied by the most senior Deathwatch officer present, who by dint of his rank outranks the ship's captain, the mortal Jerok DeSaul. The captain's command terminal is immediately fore of and below the throne, a place from which he can easily converse with whichever of his Adeptus Astartes masters is currently in overall command of the vessel. |
Argent Crusader - Chapel Sanctus: Even the smallest Imperial warship is host to scores of chapels, from the bulkhead-mounted reliquaries to cathedralsized sacred spaces, and the Argent Crusader is no different.One particular chapel, however -- the Chapel Sanctus -- is the exclusive preserve of any Deathwatch battle-brothers travelling on the vessel and, save for the Chapter serfs tasked with caring for the chapel's relics, no lesser mortal may set foot within upon pain of death.This relatively small, stone-lined space is protected by the most potent of wards and provides the Adeptus Astartes with a secluded inner sanctum in which they might perform the Chapter's sacred rites of battle and annunciate the Warrior's Catechism of Worship before combat, bless their wargear and honour that of the dead, and stand the long vigil upon the eave of battle.The Chapel Sanctus is often employed as a reliquary when the vessel's passengers are bearing items of great significance, as is the case with the Maul of the Gatekeeper. |
Argent Crusader - Sleeping Cells: The Argent Crusader provides sleeping quarters for a handful of Space Marines, each of which is an unadorned, plain-walled cell equipped only with the barest necessities a battle-brother needs to maintain his wargear, commune with the war-spirits of his armour, and recharge its power core. The ship's crew live in equally austere quarters. |
Argent Crusader - Training Chambers: The Argent Crusader is host to around a dozen chambers set aside for the exclusive use of the Adeptus Astartes. These large spaces can be configured in a number of different ways and are lined with heavy armour so they can be used as firing ranges.The training chambers can be isolated from the rest of the ship and, because they are all located adjacent to its hull, they can be purged if needed. The walls of Chamber 8 still bear the scars from the time a xenos War-Wyrd of the Hambro Cuth was transported, having been captured by the Deathwatch attempting to infiltrate the Iron Collar.The awesomely powerful xenos psyker proved so destructive that the Kill-team was forced to purge the chamber and consign the Cuthian to a cold, airless grave lest the dread energies he had unleashed consume the entire ship. |
Argent Crusader - Deathwatch Armoury: In addition to the numerous batteries and arms caches intended for the use of the crew, the Argent Crusader is host to a sealed, heavily armoured chamber in which the weapons of the Deathwatch are stored.The armoury contains far more weapons and ammunition than any Kill-team could ever require for a single mission, extending the reach and multiplying the force the Deathwatch is able to bring to bear. The armour contains numerous different types and patterns of weapon, some of which may represent the only known example of their mark or design.While the vast majority of the wargear stored in the armoury are standard (as far as the Adeptus Astartes are concerned), it also contains a small number of exotic weapons, such as Graviton Guns and Conversion Beam Projectors. |
Argent Crusader - Launch Decks: As a rapid strike vessel, one of the Argent Crusader's primary function is to carry a complement of Space Marines to its destination and to deliver its members directly into combat. The vessel is equipped with a primary launch deck in its armoured prow, and two secondary decks amidships -- one port and one starboard.The primary deck is equipped with a Thunderhawk gunship which its crew keeps in a high state of alert. The secondary launch decks are generally used for non-combat or combat support operations, such as ferrying materiel to and from a landing zone, loading the ship's ammunition stores, and receiving and delivering visitors.The secondary decks are sometimes used to launch smaller vessels such as the Stormtalon gunship, two of which are available should the Deathwatch decide to utilise them. In addition to the conventional launch decks, the Argent Crusader is host to a Drop Pod assault cradle, in which two Adeptus Astartes Drop Pods currently await use. |
Argent Crusader - Observation Blister: The Observation Blister sits atop one of the numerous armoured spires mounted towards the Argent Crusader's aft section. Most are host to a staggering variety of different types of sensors, some of which are highly exotic, possibly of xenos or pre-Imperial origin, and used exclusively by the Deathwatch.The blister is a dome of armoured glass able to accommodate a squad of Space Marines, affording a spectacular view of the vessel and of surrounding space. It is in this spartan chamber that Watch-Captain Esteban de Dominova delivers his mission briefing. |
Argent Crusader - Conversii: The Deathwatch in the Jericho Reach is slightly different from conventional Space Marine Chapters, in that it does not utilise failed Aspirants as Chapter serfs, because it does not select and train its own brethren.Even a failed Aspirant is likely to be a superior specimen of Humanity, what Adeptus Astartes implants they have received granting them abilities and attributes normal men do not possess.Denied this channel of recruitment, the Deathwatch of the Jericho Reach relies instead on the practise of employing generation after generation of the same families to staff its vessels and holdings.Often, the exact same position has been filled by countless generations of the same line, the long-mastered secrets of one single duty passed down from father to son.This process results in a staff of mortals literally bred to serve, and utterly loyal to its Deathwatch masters. Most of the Deathwatch's Chapter serfs go about their duties all but invisible to the godlike warriors they serve, yet a few rise to positions of great honour and in so doing earn the right to address a member of the Adeptus Astartes without invitation.These honoured servants are known by the High Gothic honorific "conversii," indicating they have earned the much vaunted right to speak before being spoken to in the presence of a Space Marine. |
Argent Crusader - Notable Personnel: Esteban de Dominova, Deathwatch Watch CaptainGarran Skiniker, Master of OrdnanceJerok DeSaul, CaptainKavant Ire, Master HelmsmanKhilankha, AstropathLukan Stark, NavigatorUsium Mellano, Enginseer Prime Adept |
Argenta - Argenta: Argenta is a battle-sister currently of the Orders Pronatus and a former sister of the Order of Our Martyred Lady of the Adepta Sororitas currently serving in the retinue of the House von Valancius Rogue Trader dynasty in the Koronus Expanse of the Segmentum Obscurus.The terrible tread of gigantic Titans, the scream of Drop Pods entering the atmosphere -- these are the sounds that make the hearts of Heretics tremble. So too does prayer -- the holy battle prayer of the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas. Also known as the Sisters of Battle, these fierce and devoted women make up the militant arm of the Ecclesiarchy, the state church of the Imperium of Man.The orphaned daughter of Astra Militarum officers, the child who would become Sister Argenta received harsh training in the Schola Progenium -- the crucible of the Imperial military elite. Only one memory survived from before the ordeal of training -- or was it merely a dream? In this vision, the girl saw grey ship hulls and dirty military camps, dank trenches, faceless people in Astra Militarum uniforms, the roar of a counterattack, the crescendo of her mother's heart-rending cry, broken by an ominous silence...and the golden Aquila lying among the ashes, so immaculate, so alien in this gloomy and bleak environment. The symbol of the God-Emperor of Mankind.Somewhere in the malicious oceans of the Warp, the Emperor was fighting the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. For the young orphan, He became a semantic constant, an object of worship, an impeccable role model, the reason she had survived hell. Guided by this shining symbol, sure that she had been chosen for some great, as yet unknown, purpose, the girl proved herself time and time again in the Schola and ascended to the ranks of the Adepta Sororitas. Her birth name was forgotten, replaced by a new one -- Argenta, the name of a local saint worshipped in the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse. A long and crooked path then led her to Footfall, where she was to join a small mission of her order to guard a holy reliquary.It seems that Argenta lives and breathes for one purpose -- to achieve perfection worthy of the Emperor's most faithful warriors. She is unstoppable, audacious -- sometimes too audacious. The battlefield is her temple, and bolter rounds are the words of her fervent prayer. When she rushes into battle, the ship's bulkheads reverberate with the passion of her prayers, and her allies feel the surge of power.But what led the young sister away from her duties as a guardian of the reliquary? Was it a holy epiphany or a fall from grace? This remains a tightly held secret... |
Argenta - History: Whether brought in through the Schola Progenium or direct recruitment, the life of a member of the Adepta Sororitas is one fraught with peril and pious service to the Master of Mankind. Each woman is expected to be a manifestation of the Emperor's will, a living embodiment of all He would have Humanity strive for while maintaining a constant vigil on those who might fall short of such lofty ideals. She shall be a beacon of faith amid the squalid, unwashed masses that bow their head in supplication to their lessers. Always to offer succor to the faithful and pious, always to chastise the faithless and wicked at the end of a bolter.But some still heed an even higher calling, one the countless orders of the Sisterhood proffer only to their most abled sisters—Argenta was one such woman.From the Order of Our Martyred Lady, she was reassigned to one of the many non-Militant Orders Pronatus that oversaw a sacred reliquary overseen by the Ecclesiarchy, a sect known as the Drusians dedicated to Saint Drusus of the Calixis Sector, on the void station of Footfall in the Koronus Expanse. She was to be another member of the small order tasked with this service. It was a task in which she took great pride, evident in her staunch refusal to bend to forces that would crush lesser men and women. And with the same reverence and eagerness that took her when she beheld an Aquila amid ash and trenches, she took to her task and made a pilgrimage to Footfall.Despite her eagerness and capability, Argenta's vigil over the Drusian reliquary came to an end when something greater still called to her and bid her find a passage from Footfall to another planet. It was this need for passage that brought her aboard Lord Captain Theodora von Valancius' flagship, who had been brought there due to unrelated business the lord captain also had with the same planet due to its recently discovered and unexplored nature -- a world said to hold an incredible relic once employed by a saint who is Argenta's namesake.But during her pilgrimage to this world, her search for this relic, Sister Argenta made a mistake.Minions of the Archenemy ambushed her, wounded Argenta and left her in a critical state before Theodora returned with her coterie in tow. They brought blade and bullet to the Heretics long enough to secure the battle-sister before then absconding with her to the von Valancius flagship, after which they fled, treating Argenta's wounds and allowing her time to recover. This left a fire burning in her chest, one of anger and a desperation for retribution, and kept her aboard the flagship before pirates and dissidents launched a coup against the Rogue Trader. She never had a chance to aid the lord captain's defence, however, for the ship was in flight from the system before the battle-sister finally came back to consciousness.Argenta met many individuals during her stay in the medbay, especially the von Valancius Seneschal Abelard Werserian who came to ask about her health several times. This was a kindness which fostered a budding camaraderie with the von Valancius command crew, one not shared however with Theodora's diviner, Idira Tlass, whom the sister bears a great disdain for since she is an Unsanctioned Psyker, a feeling that is mutual between both parties.But whatever promises were made, whatever Argenta may have expected, was not to come to pass with Theodora von Valancius' unexpected murder during a Warp incursion upon her flagship.However, the efforts of Theodora's heir apparent as the new Rogue Trader of the von Valancius dynasty and their growing retinue -- with Argenta now counted among their ranks -- pushed back against the tide of fate. And now only the future shall see what lies in store for the new Lord Captain and Argenta, their steadfast markswoman. |
Argenta - Personality: While no oath is sworn to forgo romantic relationships within their orders, many of the Adepta Sororitas prioritize the sanctity of their charge as the sword and shield of the God-Emperor over dalliances of the heart. Argenta is one such individual -- she will reciprocate no romantic advances from men or women.With her mind, body and soul given over to the Emperor and His people, Argenta is counted as a member of one of the most devoted and zealous of Imperial organizations. She brooks faith in her fellow man, but her belief lies squarely in that of the God-Emperor and His holiest of laws, that which govern and define the Imperium in its day-to-day life.Sister Argenta is considered a hardline Puritan as the Inquisition judges such things, a dedicated adherent to the Imperium and the sacred doctrines of the Master of Mankind above all else. |
Argenta - Abilities: Whether it is by bolter, flamer or melta, the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas teaches its members how best to bring death to the Heretic, mutant and alien with a vast and blessed arsenal of weaponry. They are taught how best to punctuate their sermons toward the unclean and unfaithful with the staccato of bolt shells, delivered unto them from the barrel of their most iconic choice of weapon. And in this regard, Argenta is no different from the rest of her battle-sisters. |
Argenta - Wargear: Mesh ChestplateAutopistolMedi-kitBolter (Human-sized) |
Argenta (Saint) - Argenta (Saint): Argenta was a saint of the Imperial Cult venerated by the Imperial faithful in the Calixis Sector and the neighbouring Koronus Expanse.Her name was chosen at a Schola Progenium as a replacement for the birth name of an orphaned girl whose parents were Astra Militarum officers killed in the line of duty. That girl would grow up to be Sister Argenta of the Adepta Sororitas' Order of Our Martyred Lady and later the Orders Pronatus. Sister Argenta would go on to serve in the retinue of the Rogue Trader of House von Valancius in the Koronus Expanse. |
Argoth - Argoth: Argoth is a Hive World that has, like many populous worlds in the Jericho Reach, suffered greatly through the ages, but few worlds reclaimed by the Imperium suffer as Argoth does.Once a teeming Hive World many thousands of Terran years old, which had endured the long nightmare of the Jericho Reach's "Age of Shadow" largely intact, Argoth now faces a slow and cruel demise at the hands of the Imperium.Quarantined and isolated from the desperately needed supplies of food, water and mineral resources supplied by nearby Rheelas and Kaggeran, Argoth starves.In a few short years, the world's population has been reduced to roaming bands of scavengers and raiders, with the most desperate driven to madness, cannibalism and blasphemy as supplies dwindle to nothing.In a matter of generations, Argoth will be a wasteland, a savage realm of steel caves and haunted old manufactoria, populated by the barely-Human degenerate descendants of those hardy enough to endure their world's isolation. Not long after that, the world will be dead and filled with the bones of those the Imperium condemned.Lord Commander Sebiascor Ebongrave seems unconcerned by the brutality of the fate to which he has condemned the Quarantined Worlds, seeing so cruel a punishment as fitting for the crime of consorting with xenos.He would sooner leave worlds to die in this fashion than risk the spread of their perceived taint, content in the knowledge that the worlds can be repopulated by true, loyal citizens of the Imperium in due course.In spite of this, however, it is rumoured that he has sanctioned a handful of missions to the Quarantined Worlds, perhaps in search of some method of more swiftly ridding them of the taint of the insidious T'au.The planet's standing army is non-existent, the societal collapse on Argoth having been a 98.114% likelihood within the first two Terran years of isolation, removing all capability for an organised military. Now, with Argoth under strict quarantine under General Order 169, a blockade prevents all interplanetary trade or distribution of resources.The local economy is believed to be nonexistent, due to a lack of natural, usable resources. Projections indicate that a subsistence-level hunter-gatherer society is inevitable within two solar decades, and that this is incapable of sustaining a Hive World's population for any length of time. |
Argoth - History: Argoth, like the nearby worlds of Rheelas and Kaggeran, was colonised by the Imperium in the early 32nd Millennium under the expansionist mandate of a succession of Lords Sector of the Jericho Sector.Little in the fragmentary records of that era remains, but there is no evidence to suggest that any of the worlds in what was then known as the Arkalas Cluster were anything more than a collection of backwater colonies adjacent to a well-travelled Warp route.The uncertain history of the Age of Shadow does not mark Argoth with any particular significance beyond the mere fact that it survived that benighted era, leaving the world as little more than a footnote.Raids by pirates, Traitors and Heretics -- commonplace across the Jericho Reach during the Age of Shadow -- plagued the worlds of the Arkalas Cluster, by that point joined together as a single political entity referred to as "The Unity," but history seems largely to have passed Argoth and its sister worlds by.This changed in the latter years of the 8th century of the 41st Millennium, less than a solar decade after the conflict known as the Damocles Crusade.Expanding outwards from their homeworld, and having reached the coreward edge of the Jericho Reach, the alien T'au began to establish a strong presence within the region, variously conquering, treating with or simply colonising the worlds they came across.Argoth was a distant goal at the time, many solar months travel for even their fastest ships, but it was more populous than any other world encountered by the nascent Velk'Han Sept, and allied with other resource-bearing worlds, and thus a prize to be coveted.Swift messenger ships carrying Water Caste dignitaries followed the intelligence-gathering drone-scouts, conveying greetings on behalf of the T'au Empire and expressing a desire for peaceful cooperation, endeavouring to appeal to The Unity as like-minded individuals in a hostile galaxy.The T'au could attempt little more than this opening preamble before the Imperium arrived to reclaim their worlds. Unwilling and unable to fully muster a defence against the crusaders, the T'au fell back from Argoth, Rheelas and Kaggeran, while gathering a force to contest the Imperium on Wrath, closer to the worlds the T'au had already claimed.However, the brief time the T'au had been in contact with The Unity would be sufficient to shape the fate of Argoth and its sister worlds for years to come.With the Space Marines of the Storm Wardens Chapter at their forefront, the crusaders assigned to Operation Hammerfall descended swiftly and decisively upon the Arkalas Cluster.On Argoth itself, Chapter Master Lorgath Maclir of the Storm Wardens led the charge personally, descending from orbit by Thunderhawk to assault the palace of the most senior leaders of The Unity.Within solar hours, Compliance was achieved on all three worlds, and spurred on by their successes, the Achilus Crusade moved on swiftly, leaving behind basic garrison forces.Within solar months of the supposed conquest of Argoth, The Unity and countless other secessionist groups on worlds regarded as Compliant struck against the Imperium, each of them supported or encouraged by the T'au.Operation Hammerfall ground to a halt, denied the reinforcements Maclir needed to press his attack and overrun the T'au-held world of Ravacene. The advance of the Achilus Crusade was stalled in a storm of betrayals so swift and sudden that their timing could only have been carefully orchestrated.Even as Astra Militarum and Adeptus Arbites forces put down these rebellions, disaster struck. Lord Militant Tiber Achilus was lost to his crusade, and its advance was halted on every front by the sudden loss of its leader and founder.As the crusade mourned, secessionists on Argoth struck back against the Imperium, and hostilities between Imperial and Unity forces became increasingly vicious.The arrival of two Deathwatch Kill-teams, directed by Inquisitor Lor Tremayle and scores of Acolytes, swiftly and brutally put down the rebellious elements wherever they were found and provided the Adeptus Arbites and Astra Militarum forces the opportunity to regroup and renew their efforts.With the ascension of Lord Militant Solomon Tetrarchus to the command of the crusade, General Ebongrave was given authority over the newly formed Canis Salient.His pride injured by the loss of worlds that had been conquered by his armies, and his hatred for the alien stronger than ever, Ebongrave gave his first order after his promotion -- the quarantine of Argoth, Rheelas and Kaggeran.As the worlds upon which the uprisings had been most vicious, they were to serve as an example to other Human-settled worlds that betrayal and sedition would be punished mercilessly.Since the quarantine began, Argoth has suffered more greatly than its neighbours, being far more dependent upon off-world supplies than the other two worlds.In the solar decades following, more than 90% of Argoth's population is estimated to have died in the desperate violence that now characterises its hive cities, the state of the world observed by orbital augury from Imperial Navy vessels blockading the planet. |
Argoth - Hive Korianthus: During the long years of the Age of Shadow, Hive Korianthus was the home of the ruling council of The Unity. From the fortress known as the Pinnacle, at the very top of Hive Korianthus, The Unity ruled across the worlds of the Arkalas Cluster.In the millennia before the Age of Shadow began, Hive Korianthus was the planetary capital of Argoth, an honour and responsibility gained simply by being the oldest and largest of the world's three hive cities.As the Jericho Sector collapsed, it seemed as if Argoth would fall as many populous worlds had, unable to sustain themselves and lacking the infrastructure of the Imperium to maintain them.Unwilling to see their world starve, the planet's ruling nobility set about trying to strengthen ties with the other worlds of the Arkalas Cluster, restoring simple starships to defend the systems and carry goods between them and thankful that the distances were small enough to be traversed by calculated Warp jump.As Argoth's situation stabilised, and then began to improve, the needs of the populace grew, and the world's Adeptus Mechanicus congregation found themselves needing to test the limits and tolerances of every machine they could produce and maintain, pushing them further than their doctrine would permit and succeeding in spite of it.As their successes accumulated, so too did their certainty, and over the millennia, the congregation ceased giving worship to the Omnissiah and the Machine God, viewing themselves as masters of the machine.When the Imperium returned to Argoth, it was a Techmarine of the Storm Wardens Chapter who discovered the forge-citadel of these presumptuous Hereteks, and the Adeptus Mechanicus wasted no time in laying waste to the defiled temple and its impure mechanisms, as Skitarii phalanxes butchered the apostate mechanics who commanded Argoth's technology.At present, Hive Korianthus is a ruin. Much of the city was damaged during the initial assaults of Operation Hammerfall, and little opportunity existed to repair and remake the city before Unity forces began their uprising.The upper tiers are entirely inhospitable without well-maintained rebreather equipment, while the lower levels and underhive depths are a crumbling wasteland, prone to hive-quakes and collapse, with ancient atmosphere processors failing due to lack of maintenance.Isolated pockets of survivors exist, but they are few in number and growing fewer by the day as the air becomes increasingly toxic and food supplies become ever more scarce. |
Argoth - Hive Tiestomadan: During the time of the Jericho Sector, Hive Tiestomadan was a centre for mass industry within the region, containing the highest concentration of manufactoria anywhere within the sub-sector. However, while it could produce vast quantities of equipment, little of what it produced was regarded anywhere within the sector as anything other than cheap bulk goods.The situation changed with the fall of the Jericho Sector. As The Unity came into being, the manufactoria of Hive Tiestomadan were the only places capable of manufacturing a variety of items in sufficient quantities to supply three worlds, and the hive city's prestige grew.The number of engineers and technicians within the city grew with every passing standard year, as necessity forced the manufactoria to produce ever-more complex items.Unlike Hive Korianthus, Tiestomadan emerged from the return of the Imperium relatively unscathed, its status as a manufacturing hub important to the burgeoning Achilus Crusade, and its relative lack of political status making it a far lower priority than Korianthus.As a result, when the engineers of Korianthus were forced to flee the purges of the Adeptus Mechanicus, they fled to Tiestomadan, going into hiding amongst the manufactoria and biding their time.Similarly, when The Unity rose up against the Imperium, it was from Tiestomadan that the rebels gained their arms and armour, some using designs gifted by the T'au in good faith, and from Tiestomadan that they drew the bulk of their numbers.The city fell after eighteen solar weeks of conflict in a war that saw millions die for meagre gains, and was left a ruin in the aftermath of the rebellions.However, the hive city's nature has allowed it to endure longer than the others, taking advantage of technology to aid the hunt for food and the maintenance of life-sustaining machinery, and while its populace are much-depleted after decades of isolation, they remain far closer to the civilisation they once were than the populations of Korianthus or Akirrorhineus. |
Argoth - Hive Akirrorhineus: Almost too small to be worthy of being termed a hive, Akirrorhineus was still a massive city at its peak, originally formed as a conglomeration of scattered mining settlements before the world's worthwhile natural resources became scarce.It was not until the establishment of The Unity that Akirrorhineus gained notoriety as a source of supplementary labour for the other two hive cities.Isolated from the Imperium, the worlds under The Unity lacked contact with the Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, and thus had no way of dealing with the new generations of psykers being born. With no means of sending the psykers away as they had always done, an alternative solution was required.The few remaining Astropaths and other Sanctioned Psykers on Argoth, Rheelas and Kaggeran were put into service passing on their knowledge to those who shared their gift and given the responsibility of monitoring the populace for emergent psykers, eliminating those too dangerous to live and training those who could be of use to The Unity.The Collegium Psykana sprang up in the relatively small and isolated city of Akirrorhineus, to act as a hub for this solemn duty, and for millennia, its staff oversaw the training of generations of witches and seers, far from the light of the Astronomican and the gaze of the Emperor.By the time the Imperium returned to Argoth, Akirrorhineus was a haunted and heavily depopulated shell of a hive city, with much of its populace having relocated to the other cities to escape the psychic fallout from the Collegium Psykana.While it had produced numerous skilled and stable psykers to serve The Unity, the techniques of the Collegium masters were a far cry from the age-honed and meticulous methods of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.The city was obliterated without mercy upon discovery of this fact, though none who are there will speak of the method used to bring that nest of witches to the Emperor's judgement.Rumours amongst the loose lipped and foolish tell of silver-clad warriors who could wield the Emperor's holy fire and wrathful lightning as easily as a man wields a lasgun, who turned the city into a pyre in a single solar week. Rumour mongers who tell such tales swiftly vanish, but the rumours persist nonetheless. |
Arhra - Arhra: Arhra, once the "Father of Scorpions," now usually referred to as the "Fallen Phoenix," is the original Phoenix Lord of the Craftworld Aeldari's Striking Scorpions Aspect Warriors.He is the only Phoenix Lord to have been completely lost to the Asuryani and his Aspect Shrine when his murderous nature ultimately overwhelmed him and led to the consumption of his soul by Chaos, transforming him into a life-destroying monster like the Drukhari. |
Arhra - Origins: Asurmen, the "Hand of Asur," was the first Phoenix Lord of the Asuryani. Prior to the Fall of the Aeldari, Asurmen was the Aeldari who led the craftworlds away from the ancient homeworlds of their now lost interstellar Aeldari Empire and it was he who founded the first of the Aspect Shrines, the Shrine of Asur, on the barren moon of the same name located in a region of the Webway that his people initially settled.Asurmen found that he could not give up the Path of the Warrior to follow a different Asuryani Path, for he desired to use his skills to protect what remained of his species after the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, "She Who Thirsts." From the Shrine of Asur sprang the first Aspect Warriors, and the Path of the Warrior was opened for the very first time to all Asuryani.Those Asuryani who wanted to follow this new path learned at the feet of their master, and in turn they assumed the mantle of Exarchs before spreading throughout the craftworlds of the galaxy. The first Exarchs, theAsurya, the children of Asurmen, were the greatest of his students and went on to become the Phoenix Lords of the other Aspect Shrines, the first masters of the other specialised Craftworld Aeldari combat disciplines.Arhra, the "Father of Scorpions," founded the Striking Scorpions Aspect Shrine, which came to epitomise its founder's dark nature; its warriors were cunning, merciless and deadly. Arhra taught the warriors of his Aspect the ability to stalk the shadows, creeping ever closer to their prey before falling upon them like the wrath of the war god Khaine himself.Eventually Arhra's murderous nature consumed him, and he became lost to his Aspect, becoming known as the "Fallen Phoenix." Arhra was lured by darkness and betrayed Asurmen and the other Asurya, the first Phoenix Lords, by bringing Daemons into the First Shrine to wage war upon his fellows. Those loyal to Asurmen were defeated and scattered across the stars, but Arhra himself would eventually flee into the Webway, becoming "the Fallen Phoenix who burns with the dark light of Chaos."It is believed that after he began walking the Path of Damnation, Arhra fled to the Dark City of Commorragh where he became the first Drukhari Incubus Hierarch and founded the first Incubus shrine. Many Asuryani believe that Arhra survived into the present and became Drazhar, the Master of Blades, the greatest champion of the Drukhari Incubi.Karandras, a Striking Scorpions Exarch and the greatest student of Arhra, took over control of the Aspect Shrine after the corruption of its original Phoenix Lord. Karandras taught the Striking Scorpions the patience and discipline they needed so that they would not follow in their founder's wake and lose their immortal souls to She Who Thirsts when their bloodlust and murderous desires overtook them.Arhra is suspected to have been last seen when Drazhar and Karandras duelled for 17 solar days in 928.M41 amongst the shattered ruins of the ancient Aeldari world of Zandros. Outnumbered and unable to defeat his former master in combat, Karandras artfully goaded his predecessor into a blind killing frenzy over the course of a gruelling seventeen-day battle.At a critical moment, the Shadow Hunter melted into a patch of darkness and disappeared entirely, leaving his nemesis to slaughter every one of his own Incubi disciples in a murderous rage. |
Arhra - Tale of the Incubi: The Drukhari Incubi of Commorragh tell a different tale than that told among the craftworlds about Arhra's fall. They claim that Arhra was known as the "Father of Scorpions," and his disagreements with the other Phoenix Lords were said to be deep and vitriolic from the first. The Phoenix Lords preached discipline and caution, a slow rebuilding of the Aeldari civilisation around the preserved kernel of the Asuryani of the craftworlds.They foresaw that the heightened passions of war could destroy what was left of the Aeldari in the centuries that followed. To forestall this, their Aspect Warriors learned to adopt a persona, a "war aspect" or "war mask" that could insulate their souls from the carnage and prevent them developing a taste for it.As with so many other things, the Craftworld Aeldari saw the allure of bloodletting and senseless violence as a gateway for Chaos to enter their hearts and complete their ruination. What Arhra believed was a secret known only to his true followers, the Incubi.Arhra believed that the other Phoenix Lords wished the Asuryani to learn to lay down and take up the role of the warrior at need, as if donning a mantle or mask. He knew they wished to abandon the Drukhari of Commorragh and fight only for the Craftworld Aeldari they viewed as uncorrupted by the hedonism that had destroyed the Aeldari Empire.Arhra saw that the Aeldari's long fight against Chaos would require true devotion from all the kindreds of the Aeldari, including the inhabitants of Commorragh, not weak compromise for the benefit of a few. He refused to accept the Asuryani's ideals and he went his own way, leaving the craftworlds behind.Followers flocked to Arhra's shrines and he tested them for their worth. The weak and corrupt he slew. He taught discipline and martial skill only to those who were possessed of sufficient fury to stand against him. Where Chaos threatened, Arhra always stood against it. It is told by the Incubi that in his final battle, Arhra stood alone against the Daemons of Chaos without respite through solar days and nights when the other Phoenix Lords failed to come to his aid.At last Arhra was pierced through the heart by the dark light of Chaos. What returned to the first Incubi Shrine showed Arhra's face, yet burned with unholy fire that drove Arhra's students into terror and madness.When all seemed lost, the students heard their master's voice from amid the flames. It bid them to marshal their fury and stand against his mortal form, that now was the ultimate test of their discipline. Such was their devotion that they obeyed despite their terror.They slew Arhra's Chaos-corrupted mortal form and partook of his untouched spirit, taking it into themselves so that the way of Arhra should endure forever more as the way of the Incubi. |
Arik Taranis - Arik Taranis: Arik Taranis, also known as Babu Dhakal, was one of the first Thunder Warriors -- the first group of genetically-engineered soldiers created by the Emperor of Mankind to help conquer the techno-barbarian warlords of Old Earth, and to reunite the homeworld of humanity beneath his rule after the long night of the Age of Strife. Once Unity had been achieved and the world united following the end of the Unification Wars, the Emperor intended to launch his galaxy-spanning Great Crusade and establish his Imperium of Man by reuniting all the lost colony worlds of humanity under his rule with the aid of a second generation of genetically-engineered warriors who became the first Space Marines.Imperial history records that Arik Taranis died valiantly alongside all of the remaining Thunder Warriors at the Battle of Mount Ararat, the final battle of the Unification Wars, where Taranis boldly raised the Emperor's banner at the very moment that the Unity of Terra was finally achieved before his own death. But the truth was far different. Arik Taranis survived that battle, only to face a terrible betrayal wrought by the Emperor himself and to carry this dark secret for centuries until he played an extraordinary role for a second time in the history of the Imperium during the Horus Heresy. |
Arik Taranis - History: His mortal name is not recorded within the Imperial historical archives, but when he was reborn into the new form of one of the first proto-Astartes, he was named Arik Taranis. The Emperor had wrought these gene-enhanced warriors to be faster, stronger and more powerful than any of the feral techno-barbarian gene-sept warriors that claimed fealty over humanity's homeworld at the end of the Age of Strife. Taranis and his Battle-Brothers were created as tools of deadly efficiency, intended to spread terror amongst the Emperor's enemies and serve as the perfect killing machines. Their goal was to drag Terra back from the anarchy into which it had fallen for over five millennia, and into a new age of enlightenment and peace -- though they themselves would never know anything but war.It was against this backdrop of oppression, violence and casual brutality that Arik Taranis and his fellow Thunder Warriors carved a reputation as the undisputed soldiers of their age. Arik Taranis would forge a legend that would still resonate with the modern Space Marines created as the replacements for the Thunder Warriors before the start of the Great Crusade. Even millennia later, Imperial records were strewn with the historic battles Arik Taranis had helped to win, the terrible foes he had slain and the great honours he had earned fighting in the Emperor's legions during the Unification Wars. He would become history wrought in living form: the Victor of Gaduaré, the Last Rider, the Butcher of Scandia, the Throne-slayer -- these and a hundred other battle-honours earned by this incomparable warrior are scattered throughout the historical texts written about the foundation of the Imperium. All these tales culminated in the end of Taranis' life atop a once-flooded mountain during the final great clash of the Unification Wars, the Battle of Mount Ararat fought in the Kingdom of Urartu.Taranis was posthumously awarded the title of "Lightning Bearer" in the aftermath of Mount Ararat. The Imperial chronicles record that Taranis and his Battle-Brothers amongst the remaining Thunder Warriors were all slain to a man in this final battle of the great conflict, sacrificing themselves to win the last and most important victory for the Emperor and establish his government over Terra which would become the Imperium of Man. The Imperial chronicles record that Taranis died, succumbing to numerous mortal wounds once he fulfilled the honour of raising the Emperor's Lightning Banner at the final declaration of Unity for humanity's birthworld.The truth, however, was very different and far darker, for Arik Taranis had actually survived the Battle of Mount Ararat, and also knew that at the very moment the Emperor had founded his Imperium, he had also arranged for the betrayal of the men who had fought so ferociously for him, eliminating every last one of the surviving Thunder Warriors because they were no longer necessary and would serve as an impediment to the next stage in the Emperor's plans to forge a new Golden Age for Mankind. Amazingly, Taranis bore no ill-will towards his creator for this monstrous and secret betrayal, for he understood better than anyone that the Thunder Warriors had always been merely a means to an end. He and all his kind had been cast aside by the Emperor in favour of the more advanced Space Marines gene-template. Arik Taranis was one of only a small number of Thunder Warriors who managed to escape the final cull of his kind after Mount Ararat.Taranis managed to hide himself amongst the teeming masses of Mankind on Terra for over a century after the end of the Unification Wars, shunning his former name and assuming a new identity. He became the despicable criminal warlord Babu Dhakal, clan master of the Dhakal gang, the master of most of the Petitioner’s City criminal enterprises, including prostitution, gambling, and the illegal sale of food, drugs and weapons. Nothing moved within the city without the Babu’s approval. During the century spent on the run from Imperial authorities, Taranis discovered the inherent flaw that lay within every Thunder Warriors' genetic makeup, for their lifespans had been engineered to be extremely limited, unlike the true Astartes who came after them and would live for hundreds of Terran years. Unbeknownst to anyone outside of the Petitioner's City, Taranis maintained a well-equipped genetic laboratory at the heart of the city. The fact that such an advanced laboratory existed on Terra was not surprising, but that it was to be found in the heart of that city of lost souls was nothing short of miraculous -- akin to finding a fully functioning starship buried within the ruins of Old Earth’s ancient prehistory. Fortunately for Taranis, he had learned what he could from his creator in the years of the Unification Wars, and had come to master much of the Emperor's knowledge of the ancient science of genetics. Unfortunately, Taranis did not possess enough knowledge to halt his own cellular deterioration, only enough to desperately cling to life long enough for his fortunes to finally change during the opening days of the Horus Heresy. |
Arik Taranis - The Outcast Dead: Eventually fate would bring Taranis into the path of the Traitors known as the Outcast Dead. This small group of Astartes warriors were made up of the remnants of the Crusader Host -- a small honour guard of Space Marines comprised of representatives from each of the 18 Space Marine Legions that served on a rotational basis within the Imperial City outside the Imperial Palace on Terra. These Astartes were considered Traitors because of the actions of their Legions, half-a-galaxy away, during the opening days of the Horus Heresy when they joined in the Warmaster Horus' rebellion against the Emperor. They were hunted and eventually captured by Imperial forces and thrown into the Legio Custodes' prison of Khangba Marwu. Located beneath the mountainous peak of Rakaposhi, Khangba Marwu was where individuals deemed hostile to the Emperor were isolated from the world above. Dug into the rock of the mountain, its limestone walls were clad in Adamantium plate, a material that was resistant to virtually all forms of weaponry and deaf to the pleas of innocence that echoed from its cells. But the seven warriors were no ordinary prisoners, for they were a distinctive brotherhood comprised of Astartes from the various Traitor Legions, including one Astartes from the Thousand Sons, three World Eaters, one Emperor's Children, a Death Guard and a Luna Wolf.Taranis encountered the Outcast Dead at the Temple of Woe, located within the slums of the Petitioner's City. There, the Outcast Dead were cornered by an Imperial hunter team that had been tracking them since their escape from their prison. During the ensuing battle the majority of the Astartes of the Outcast Dead were killed during the confrontation with the Imperial forces. But Taranis and his lieutenant within the Dhakal gang Ghota, another Thunder Warrior who had survived the Emperor's cull, took advantage of this distraction and managed to escape during the ensuing chaos. Somehow, Taranis managed to obtain the Progenoid Glands of one of the fallen Astartes. These organs contained the vital key needed to provide the means for Taranis to unlock the genetic secrets that would allow the surviving Thunder Warriors to extend their lives. Deep in the heart of the Petitioner's City Taranis experimented with his ill-gotten samples within his secret laboratory. Using gene-samplers he managed to extract the necessary information encoded within the Gland's stored zygotes of Astartes organs and the impossibly complex amino acid chains were decoded. Taranis unraveled the complexities of this biological miracle, and managed to replicate the process of its creation and clone a new set of Progenoid Glands from the original sample. It is assumed that Taranis had the new organs implanted within his and his lieutenant's body. Their whereabouts after the Horus Heresy remain unknown. |
Arioch Power Claw - Arioch Power Claw: The Arioch Power Claw, also called the Arioch Power Fist, is a Titan-sized Power Fist that is deployed on Warlord-class Battle Titans to serve as a Titan-grade close combat weapon.For vehicles as large as Titans, "close combat" is a relative term. Melee combat between these massive walkers essentially starts once the enemy has gotten within the vehicle's defensive Void Shield perimeter.Accordingly, Titan close combat weapons are often large enough to mount additional secondary ranged weapon systems or are themselves extremely short-ranged directed energy weapons of surpassing power.Most typically, however, Titan close combat weapons resemble standard close combat weapons used by the infantry of the species that built the titan, but on a stupendous scale and utilising essentially the same technologies. |
Arjac Rockfist - Arjac Rockfist: Arjac Rockfist, also known as "The Man-Mountain," "Grimnar's Champion" and the "Anvil of Fenris," has served as the personal Champion of Logan Grimnar, the Great Wolf of the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter, for longer than some men live.A mountain of a man, Arjac was large even before he drank from the Cup of Wulfen, growing to become a true giant as the Canis Helix took root within his flesh.Arjac was formerly a blacksmith of the Bear Claw tribe of Fenris, whose true skills lie not at the forge, but in the crucible of battle.His incredible strength and fortitude so impressed the Great Wolf that he was made his personal Champion even before he was inducted into the Space Wolves as an Astartes and made the leader of Grimnar's Wolf Guard.It was not his size and strength alone that won him an honoured place at the side of the Great Wolf. Arjac's bravery is matched only by his unflinching loyalty to the Chapter and his Battle-Brothers, and countless times he has risked his own life in order to save his pack mates'.During the Battle of the Weeping Stars, Arjac was the last to abandon the crippled Strike Cruiser Fangs of Fenris, dragging wounded brothers to the salvation pods even as the hulk burned around him.While protecting the Great Wolf on the crystal plains of Vhaldon IX, Arjac filled the Mirrored Gate with the corpses of Hormagaunts until the weight of the Tyranids' own dead halted their advance.Arjac's strength affords him the ability to wield weapons of unusual bulk and heft. The Anvil Shield is a huge Storm Shield that can be used as a bludgeon in itself -- many a foe's skull has been shattered on its rune-covered surface.Foehammer is an equally oversized Thunder Hammer, which delivers devastating blows when combined with the Champion's superhuman strength.Foehammer is more than merely a potent close combat weapon, for it incorporates an ancient miniaturised teleporter keyed to Arjac's gauntlet, allowing it to be hurled at the enemy from a distance before returning to its wielder's outstretched hand in a flash of scorched atmosphere. |
Arjac Rockfist - History: Arjac Rockfist's life began as a blacksmith of the Bear Claw tribe. He was renowned as a giant of a man possessed of prodigious strength. Though he spoke little, he was no mere simpleton. When he was elevated to the esteemed ranks of the Sky Warriors he keenly missed his Iron Priest brethren and someday hoped to revisit his former life at the furnace.But any who witness his legendary rampages in the heat of battle know that Arjac's true skills lie not at the forge, but at war. During a particularly hot year the Iron Priests of the Bear Claw tribe were too busy tending their forges to recognise the dire portents of an imminent attack, for algae covered the shores of the Iron Isles and around each volcano the vegetation had grown to surreal proportions.Not all the monsters that live in the oceans of Fenris are confined to the briny depths. A thousand Kraken-spawn boiled out of the seas of Fenris, and soon the brotherhood of the Iron Isles found themselves sorely pressed.Left with no choice, the senior Iron Priest, Hengis Blackhand, ordered the vaults sealed against the tide of creatures, trapping hundreds of good men outside on the volcano slopes.Rockfist did not agree with Hengis' decision. Wasting little time on words, Arjac smashed his way out of the vaults with his warhammer and forced open an escape route for those caught in the path of the alien tide.Almost all of the trapped men made it inside, but the last dozen Iron Priests turned and stood with Rockfist to bar the vaults once more, setting their feet firmly as the first wave of alien horrors struck. Less than two solar hours later the skies above the Iron Isles were filled with a hundred Thunderhawk gunships.Those within could see that the entire archipelago was teeming with Kraken-things but for one exception -- a lone figure surrounded by black-carapaced monsters and the crackling blue arcs of a Thunder Hammer in full swing.Logan Grimnar and his men joined the raging battle below, and with the help of the other Great Companies, drove the Kraken-spawn back into the sea. Arjac's body was dug out from under a mountain of chitin and scythe limbs, still plugging the entrance to the vaults.He was given to the Chapter's Wolf Priests, who brought him back from the threshold of Morkai's realm. So impressed was he by the Fenrisian warrior's incredible display of strength and resilience that Arjac was made the Great Wolf's Champion on the spot.Since that day, Arjac has earned his place in Logan Grimnar's Wolf Guard a dozen times over, his hammer never resting for long. Despite his modesty, not even Arjac can deny that he has a rare gift for crushing the mightiest of foes. |
Arjac Rockfist - The Kingsguard: Logan Grimnar not only commands utmost respect from those that fight for him, but as the Great Wolf, he takes to war at the head of the greatest warriors in the entire Chapter. This collection of mighty heroes is known as the Kingsguard, and they are Grimnar's personal bodyguard, tasked with his protection on the battlefield.As Grimnar's Champion, Arjac Rockfist traditionally leads the Kingsguard alongside his liege-lord. At the head of the foremost warriors of the Chapter, Grimnar advances into the heart of the fighting, extolling his men to ever greater deeds of heroism with hearty bellows of encouragement as they carve through their enemies. |
Arjac Rockfist - Composition: Great Wolf Logan GrimnarArjac Rockfist2 units of Wolf Guard comprised of Terminators (in any combination)2 Land Raiders (of any type) |
Arjac Rockfist - Arjac's Shieldbrothers: Arjac Rockfist is a legend among the Kingsguard, and when not fighting directly at his lord's side as part of his Wolf Guard, can be found accompanying formations of Assault Terminators equipped with Storm Shields and Thunder Hammers.When joined by their High King, the Shieldbrothers, as they are known, close ranks around the Great Wolf to form an impenetrable wall of lightning-wreathed ceramite.Where one blow lands, two shields are raised to meet it, while brutal overhead blows come crashing down upon the skulls of those foolish enough to test the strength of these elite Wolf Guard.On the offensive, the Terminators will advance in a tight wedge formation, driving their way through their enemies like the prow of an armoured ship. Those not pulverised by their warhammers are crushed by their arcing shields and heavy ceramite boots. |
Arjac Rockfist - Composition: Arjac Rockfist1 Unit of Wolf Guard Terminators1 Land Raider Crusader |
Arjac Rockfist - Wargear: Foehammer - Arjac uses a rune-etched Thunder Hammer known as the Foehammer. Arjac is physically formidable enough to throw the Thunder Hammer a decent distance, using the massive close quarter weapon as a form of ranged attack. When this weapon leaves Arjac's massive fist, its built-in teleporter device ensures it will quickly return to his gauntlet, ready to be used again.Anvil Shield - The Anvil Shield is an immense Storm Shield that Arjac utilises both as an impenetrable defence and as a convenient additional weapon to knock down and batter foes away from him in battle. This powered slab of Adamantium-laced obstinate has crushed the skulls of a score of enemy warlords.Terminator Armour - Arjac wears a suit of standard Indomitus Pattern Tactical Dreadnought Armour. |
Ark Mechanicus - Ark Mechanicus: An Ark Mechanicus is a vast and powerful Imperial starship that the ancient Mechanicum and the present-day Adeptus Mechanicus uses to scour the stars for their ultimate holy grail, a working Standard Template Construct and other forms of archeotech.This quest is the most central tenet of the Mechanicus' religious Quest for Knowledge. As is to be expected, each Ark Mechanicus is filled with some of the most advanced current technology in the entire Imperium.Though these rare, nigh-mythical ships are seldom brought to battle, when they do enter combat they can bring to bear nearly impenetrable defences and weaponry whose range and firepower puts even that of Imperial battleships to shame. An Ark Mechanicus-grade vessel is equipped standard with a Nova Cannon, four Lance batteries, and two weapons batteries. This makes these rarely-seen starships truly powerful opponents on those infrequent occasions when their missions of exploration are actually interrupted by void combat.Arks Mechanicus are truly massive in size, among the largest of all Imperial starships. The extreme mass of these vessels creates a distorted gravity field equivalent in strength to that of an unstable moon. Wider than a Dominator-class Cruiser is long, an Ark Mechanicus is also outfitted with industrial capabilities rivaling that of many hive cities, with kilometre upon kilometre of manufactoria, refineries, crackling plasma reactors and laboratories, test ranges, chemical vats and gene-bays. The engines of these vessels are larger than the full mass of most starships.At least one notable Ark Mechanicus, the Speranza, secretly contained a fully functional and still updating STC database. The commander of the vessel, Archmagos Lexell Kotov, while cybernetically connected to the Speranza's Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence), learned of the STC's existence on his ship and theorised that all Arks Mechanicus secretly contained fully intact STCs, the artefacts which were the ultimate goal of the Tech-priests' sacred Quest for Knowledge, but the Mechanicus just did not realise this and had not retained the knowledge of how to access that portion of their ships' functions. Unfortunately, the knowledge of the STC's existence within the Speranza was wiped from Kotov's mind upon disconnecting from the vessel.So valuable is an Ark Mechanicus that the destruction of an entire Forge World was considered a small price to pay by the Adeptus Mechanicus just to successfully reawaken one of these vessels' Machine Spirits (artificial intelligence).The extreme rarity of these venerable voidships is such that to discover one intact is considered by the Cult Mechanicus a miracle rivalling that of the discovery of a fully-functioning STC database system in importance in the theology of the cult. This is because only a handful of Arks Mechanicus are said to still exist. |
Ark Mechanicus - Notable Arks Mechanicus: Omnissiah's Victory - The Omnissiah's Victory is an Ark Mechanicus with a long and storied history. It is rumoured (albeit without proof) to predate the Great Crusade, and is definitely known for having participated in the Noloptis Crusade during the 33rd Millennium. The Omnissiah's Victory is armed with vast arrays of weapons batteries, lances, and a Nova Cannon, and is thought to be the original basis for the design of the Imperial Navy's Retribution-class Battleship.Speranza - The Speranza is an Ark Mechanicus that served as part of Archmagos Lexell Kotov's Explorator Fleet into the region of space known as the Halo Zone. The Speranza was equipped with powerful ancient graviton beam weapons that could create miniature black holes and chrono-weapons that were capable of shifting their target nanoseconds into the past. Sometime in M41, while interfacing with the Machine Spirit of the Speranza, Archmagos Kotov discovered that the ship contained a complete and still updating STC database containing all the knowledge of the Men of Gold and their ancestors. He theorised that all Ark Mechanicus ships contained such a database, but that the Priesthood of Mars had been unable to access the files. This information was wiped from his mind upon disconnecting from the ship's Machine Spirit.Iron Revenant - The flagship of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the Iron Revenant led Cawl's Mechanicus fleet to the Tomb World of Eriad VI on the instructions of the Aeldari Harlequin Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker. Later, after recovering a Necron artefact from Eriad VI, the Iron Revenant proceeded to Cadia, already under assault by the massed forces of Chaos of Abaddon the Despoiler, where it proved to be a desperately needed capital ship reinforcement for the battered Imperial fleet protecting that Fortress World. Cawl's attempt to use the Cadian Pylons to disrupt the Chaos forces' connection to the Warp failed when the Despoiler hurled the damaged bulk of the Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity from orbit as an artificial meteor into the surface of Cadia. The massive kinetic strike destroyed what remained of the world's defences, ensuring its envelopment by the rapidly expanding Eye of Terror. Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed ordered an evacuation of the dying world, and the Imperial survivors of Cadia led by Saint Celestine, now called the Celestinian Crusade, used every voidship at their disposal, including the Iron Revenant, to ferry the three million survivors off Cadia. Unable to enter the Warp because of the roiling instability of the Immaterium near the Cadian Gate, the Imperial fleet was forced to flee through the Cadia System at sub-light speed, and the Chaos warfleets gave chase. The largest and most powerful remaining Imperial capital ship, the Iron Revenant heroically sacrificed itself in battle against Abaddon's flagship the Vengeful Spirit so that the Celestinian Crusade could escape to the nearby ice moon of the world of Kasr Holn called Klaisus. The Iron Revenant's loss was not in vain, for the surviving Celestinians were rescued at the last by the arrival of the Ynnari through Klaisus' hidden Webway gate. Though his flagship was lost, Belisarius Cawl had rescued its most precious cargo -- the Armour of Fate, key to the resurrection of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman.Caestus Metalican - The Caestus Metalican was the flagship of Magos Dominus Faustinius, and carried his Explorator mission to the Necron Tomb World of Silva Tenebris. Since the Necron stasis tombs there were so deeply buried that even an Exterminatus action could not reliably destroy them, the Caestus Metalican instead served as the base and supply line for a punishing ground invasion by the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Magos Faustinius' legions of Skitarii and teams of Tech-priests battled undying Necron warriors and Canoptek monsters through the planet's huge catacombs, seeking both to claim lost Human archeotech and the technological secrets of the Necrons, and to strangle the Tomb World's immense military power while it still slept. The mission was a desperate race against time, for the Explorators' intrusion triggered an exponentially accelerating reactivation protocol, which if unchecked would awaken every Necron on the planet only 264 solar hours after first contact. Nor were xenos the only threat the crew of the Caestus Metalican faced; lurking in the shadows of the immense voidship was the Arch-Heretek Epsilus Dammek-Yoth, whose fanatical cult schemed to usurp the mission and claim the Necrons' technology in the name of the Xenarite tech-heresy. Xenarites are blind to the perils of alien technology, and Dammek-Yoth sought nothing less than to bring the soulless, mechanistic "immortality" of the Necrons' biotransference process to the Imperium of Man.Ark Majesty - The Ark Majesty was the flagship of Fabricator-General Kubik of the Adeptus Mechanicus at the time of the War of the Beast and The Beheading in the mid-32nd Millennium.Cursus Majoris - The Cursus Majoris was an Ark Mechanicum that had become fused into the Ork-dominated space hulk known as the Krakamorg and provided one of the three Warp-Drives that powered it.Pattern Master - The Pattern Master was an Ark Mechanicum that was a part of the Segmentum Pacificus Batllegroup 9876 Redeployment Fleet.Pent-Ark - The Pent-Ark was an Ark Mechanicus battleship commanded by Clain Pent, one of the Traitor Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal's Nine Disciples at the time of the Horus Heresy. During the Siege of Terra the vessel was deliberately beached near the Imperial Palace's Helios Gate to allow for the construction of a Traitor siege camp.Red Ark - The Red Ark was an Ark Mechanicus (designation 20022563529) from the Forge World of Mars. Assigned to the Blood Angels Chapter's homeworld of Baal, the Red Ark discovered the asteroid that would become part of the space hulk later designated the Olethros while searching for an unknown Chaos artefact. It mined the asteroid and successfully recovered the artefact. At some point after this, a catastrophe befell the ship and its crew and it became trapped in the asteroid. The ship next became infested with Tyranid Genestealers after it was trapped. The Red Ark was eventually found by the crew of the Rogue Trader ship Tregrom. After tethering their own vessel to the Red Ark, the crew of the Tregrom began to salvage what they could from the ship, including its inventories of weapons, Adeptus Astartes power armour, and even STC fragments for technology normally restricted for use only by the Blood Angels by agreement with the Mechanicus. While transferring the skeleton of a massive Tyranid, the Tyranids nesting within the Red Ark attacked the crew of the Tregrom, slaughtering them. In the 41st Millennium, a Dark Angels Terminator Squad entered the Red Ark and killed the broodmother nesting there, afterwards killing several Genestealer Cult psykers, before dispersing a mutagenic virus that would target and kill the rest of the Tyranid nest within the vessel. The Red Ark was destroyed when the Dark Angels succeeded in destroying the larger bulk of the Olethros.Zar-Quaesitor - Zar-Quaesitor was a great freighter-hulk, mass-conveyor and Ark Mechanicus that served as the flagship and mobile laboratory of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl in his time with the Indomitus Crusade Fleet Primus. At the start of the Indomitus Crusade, Cawl's own Adeptus Mechanicus fleet joined Primarch Roboute Guilliman's Fleet Primus, headed by theZar-Quaesitor, that carried within its massive hull a vast number of Primaris Marines still in stasis hibernation. As the Indomitus Crusade penetrated deeper into the galaxy, Archmagos Cawl kept his automaton workers on overdrive, risking meltdowns with their accelerated speeds. Locked deep in the labyrinthine holds of Zar-Quaesitor, thousands of Primaris Space Marines -- some comprising entirely new Chapters and others designated as reinforcements for existing Firstborn ones -- were awakened out of stasis and made ready to join the fray. Despite cleaving a wide path through the darkness that beset the Imperium during the Era Indomitus after the birth of the Great Rift, the Indomitus Crusade eventually began to break down. When the vast holds of the Zar-Quaesitor were at last emptied of their precious contents, Archmagos Cawl departed from Fleet Primus, for he had many more secret vaults to activate in order to complete the Ultima Founding. The Zar-Quaesitor is capable of holding armies of the Mechanicus within itself, as it provided several Skitarii and Legio Cybernetica armies as well as three lances of House Taranis Knights during the course of the Indomitus Crusade. |
Arkalas Cluster - Arkalas Cluster: The Arkalas Cluster is a region of space in the Jericho Reach that was once a sub-sector of the lost Jericho Sector before the onset of the region's "Age of Shadow." |
Arkalas Cluster - History: The worlds of Argoth, Rheelas and Kaggeran were, during the time of the Jericho Sector, collectively known as the Arkalas Cluster, and existed close together within a pocket of relatively stable Warpspace.During the Age of Shadow, their proximity and the relative safety of interstellar voyages between them allowed the worlds to remain in contact with, and in support of each other using only relatively crude Warp-capable vessels.It should come as little surprise, then, that the worlds slowly united into a single polity, as their fates were inexorably linked together.According to the limited observations released by the Deathwatch during the planning of Operation Hammerfall which initiated the return of the Imperium to the Jericho Reach, the worlds of the Pelegiath Cluster collectively existed under the rule of a political body known as The Unity from approximately the 36th Millennium onwards, forming a tiny stellar pocket empire not dissimilar to those encountered by the Imperium during the Great Crusade.However, unlike a few other enduring worlds within the Jericho Reach, such as Karlack and Castobel, those governed by The Unity did not maintain a properly Imperial government, nor did they retain their faith in the God-Emperor, forcing considerable corrective action on the part of Adeptus Administratum and Adeptus Ministorum elements of the Achilus Crusade to re-establish Imperial rule.This matter was complicated by actions taken by The Unity to ally with the T'au Empire, a matter that would surely have resulted in even greater expansion of the territory claimed by the T'au within the Reach had the Achilus Crusade not swiftly annexed these worlds.Since 786.M41, the worlds of the cluster have been quarantined and blockaded by Lord Commander Sebiascor Ebongrave's General Order 169 as punishment for their dealings with the T'au.Ebongrave has determined to let the populations of the cluster die off and then be replaced by what he considers loyal Imperial settlers. |
Arkash Hakkon - Arkash Hakkon: Arkash Hakkon is the current High Executioner (Chapter Master) of the infamous Executioners Space Marine Chapter. Although he possesses ultimate authority over his Astartes, he must also heed his Company Captains (treated as warlords in their own right by the Chapter's traditions), who along with the Chapter's Chief Librarian, Master of the Forge and Lord Speaker of the Dead, form a war council which by ancient right may, by unanimous assent, overthrow the High Executioner should he prove unfit or unworthy in their eyes.Unlike the traditions of most Space Marine Chapters, leadership contests for the command of the Executioners can be bloody affairs; with each of the Company Captains having the right to challenge for the title of High Executioner in trial by combat should they so wish. Hakkon more than likely ascended to this esteemed rank through this ritual combat.In battle, Hakkon wields the Lifetaker; a massive black-bladed Power Axe of archaic design, carried by successive High Executioners as a badge of their office. In 904.M41, Arkash Hakkon entrusted the Lifetaker to High Chaplain Thulsa Kane to signify his leadership of the Executioners during the dark days of the Badab War. To honour the ancient blood debt between the Executioners and the Astral Claws Chapter, the Executioners came to the aid of the Tyrant of Badab's cause in payment to this debt. But they did so on their own terms, much to the Tyrant's frustration.Operating as an elusive raiding force that struck at the Loyalist's lines across the length and breadth of the Maelstrom Zone, the Executioners remained a persistent thorn in the side of the Loyalists and a force perhaps able to turn the tide of the war, yet seemingly unwilling to do more than give battle against targets of their own choosing, seeking glory and victory, rather than fulfilling the Tyrant's strategic goals. Of all those caught up in the Secessionists' cause, the Executioners Chapter perhaps endured the least scathed and the least tainted.They had fought honourably and had lived and died by their oaths. In punishment the Chapter was forced to give up reparations and exiled from their home system for the span of a hundred years, in which time they would undertake a penitent crusade to atone for the Loyalist blood they had spilled and be forbidden from taking up new initiates. |
Arkhan Land - Arkhan Land: Arkhan Land was a famed technoarcheologist of the ancient Mechanicum who led an expedition into the massive ruins of the Librarius Omnis on Mars in the early days of the Imperium of Man during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium.He rediscovered the lost Standard Template Construct (STC) template for the heavy armoured battle tank that would become the Land Raider (originally known as "Land's Raider"), the anti-gravitic Land Speeder ("Land's Speeder") and the Land Crawler ("Land's Crawler"), a widely-used civilian vehicle employed on most of the Imperium's Agri-worlds. Tragically, Land met his end leading a second expedition into the Librarius Omnis in search of lost knowledge. |
Arkhan Land - History: Little is known about the great Mechanicum magos and technoarcheologist who is remembered in history as Arkhan Land. His birthplace remains a mystery, although it seems likely he was raised on Mars itself. That he was gifted with extraordinary perceptive abilities from an early age remains unquestioned, though most surviving accounts of the man seem to dwell more on his eccentric lifestyle and peculiar personal habits than his intellectual gifts. For example, one particular marble etching on Mars shows the great Tech-priest on his daily walk amongst the great sky vaults of the Sierra Planum with his pet psyber-monkey, while an account in Geronimus' Citations makes frequent reference to his affection for highly ostentatious wigs to obscure the baldness that afflicted him from an early age.Whatever his idiosyncratic personal behaviour may have been, it was Arkhan Land who led the greatest expedition into the ruins of the Librarius Omnis on Mars. For three standard years he searched the labyrinthine catacombs of that deserted, continent-spanning edifice in search of functioning STC databases. In this he failed, but three other discoveries were made which revolutionised technical thinking for millennia to come.Land's first major contribution was a near-complete dataslab image of STC information about a heavily armoured main battle tank which would become the Land Raider Proteus, originally known as "Land's Raider". This flexible vehicle would serve as the Legiones Astartes main battle tank at the start of the Great Crusade, but internal storage inefficiency and the rear-mounted entry hatch limited the vehicle's usefulness in the field, and over the course of the Great Crusade and subsequent Horus Heresy the design would evolve, first in the Spartan Assault Tank, and later in the Land Raider Phobos that is still in use in the late 41st Millennium.Land's second discovery unearthed information on rare anti-gravitic plates, and theories on their uses, which eventually would lead to the construction of the first "Land's Speeder" (later known as the Land Speeder). Without Land's discovery it is likely that there would be no anti-gravitic vehicles remaining in use by the Imperium at all. Unfortunately, Land would not live long enough to see the Adeptus Mechanicus begin regular production of the Land Speeder for the Imperial military forces of the Great Crusade.Land's third great gift to Imperial civilisation was the Land Crawler, another of the STC constructs re-discovered by him at the birth of the Imperium. Unlike the more famous Land Raider and Land Speeder, the Land Crawler is not a military vehicle but an agricultural one, although it has over the millennia often been pressed into service as an infantry support vehicle, artillery tow vehicle, ammunition tractor, ambulance and transport vehicle. Countless billions of Land Crawlers are used on Agri-worlds across the Imperium, where its versatility, ease of maintenance, and forgiving driving characteristics make it hugely popular as Imperial farmers' primary source of transport and motive power in their fields. It has been argued by more than one Imperial historian that the humble Land Crawler is by far the single most important STC construct discovered by Arkhan Land; after all, even Space Marines need to eat.The walker-engine known as the Onager Dunecrawler owes its origins to the Mars Universal Land Engine. Fashioned by Arkhan Land, the original M.U.L.E was inspired by the bad-tempered, insectile beast of burden that its maker believed walked Holy Terra in aeons long past. Intended as a workhorse that could escort its masters across the wastes of Mars in relative safety, the machine proved so successful it was soon rebuilt as a weapon of war. It was renamed, outfitted with Emanatus force shielding, replicated by the millions, and sent to the front lines. |
Arkhan Land - Angron and the Butcher's Nails: After the Primarch Angron's rediscovery during the Great Crusade, the Emperor noted that his genetic son had been altered by the cybernetic implants known as the Butcher's Nails that had been implanted in his mind by the gladiatorial slave lords of Nuceria. Arkhan Land aided the Emperor in investigating the nature of this terrible technology intended to increase aggression and rage.In the course of his investigation, the Emperor explained to Land that, in truth, he had no emotional attachment to the Primarchs because they were simply tools and weapons. When asked why the Emperor had allowed the Primarchs to call him "father" although he felt no such filial attachment, the Emperor told the ancient story of the puppet named Pinnochio who had sought to become a real boy and explained that it was simply natural for any creation to refer to its creator as father. |
Arkhan Land - Horus Heresy: During the Horus Heresy, Arkhan Land was a busy man. As the galaxy was riven by terrible conflict, he proved instrumental in designing the gravitic suspensor plates used by the Legio Custodes ' Caladius Grav-Tank, as well as their -- rather beautiful, in his opinion -- Paragon Pattern Jetbikes. |
Arkhan Land - Final Fate: Land eventually met his fate leading a second expedition into the Librarius Omnis; his Vox diary was discovered two Terran centuries later by one of a number of rescue teams. It is believed that he and his party were picked off one by one by some mysterious predator, although it is still a matter of much controversial debate whether this predator was some kind of living beast, a psychic entity or perhaps even a sentient virus. For most it is simply proof that the secrets of the Dark Age of Technology are best left to the shadows of mystery and prehistory. |
Arkhan Land - The Land Enigma: Disciples of the venerated Machine-Archaeologist Arkhan Land, discoverer of the Land's Raider and Land's Speeder STC pattern, form their own sub-cult within the Adeptus Mechanicus, called Landites or Landists. They continue their founder's work and research the many potential STC variants of Land's discoveries. This has led to a number of innovations, such as the Land Raider Prometheus variant. The inner circle of the Landist cult, which includes some very senior Adeptus Mechanicus Artisans, is rumoured to have evidence of a new vehicle, but to be keeping their discovery a secret.The cult's esoteric research has revealed that once, during the Great Crusade, there was an armoured vehicle which was heavier than the Predator, but lighter than the heavy assault transport of the Land Raider, and that within the blueprints of this revered war machine exist system compatibilities and redundancies, down to a microscopic level, that could help reconstruct the missing tank. Others within the Adeptus Mechanicus dispute this, and in the 39th Millennium several members of the Landist cult were tried as Hereteks and condemned to Arco-flagellation for their crimes, meaning that ever since, the Landists have been highly secretive about their work. Many Tech-priest disciples of Land have become obsessed with hunting down this pattern, but it seems that ultimate success has continually eluded them and the mythical tank remains an enigma to this day. |
Arkhan Land - Land's Raider: The appropriately named Land's Raider was the personal Grav-Raider transport of Arkhan Land, a variant Land Raider that used an anti-gravitic propulsion system designed by Land himself rather than the usual treads. This Grav-Raider was larger even than a Spartan Assault Tank and was armoured with rare Martian alloys deemed too rare for use even by the Legiones Astartes. It featured an armoured turret with an array of four Volkite Culverins arranged in a quad-turret. |
Arkhas System - Arkhas System: The Arkhas System is located deep into the frontier territories claimed by the Orpheus Salient of the Achilus Crusade in the Jericho Reach. It is home to the Deathwatch's Watch Station Arkhas. |
Arkhas System - History: The Arkhas System lies within a region dubbed the "Tuam Transitional Nexus," a point where three distinct stable routes within the Warp intersect, named for the Navigator who discovered it.This makes the system of considerable strategic importance to the Imperial Navy as a waypoint between key worlds along the Orpheus Salient and beyond; especially for the movement of troops, fleets and resources.Designated "Rally Point Epsilon-Four," this has warranted the Divisio Tactica to recommend a resupply station be established within the system.Arkhas itself contains many worlds, none of which are inhabited, though two -- Arkhas III and Arkhas IV -- both possess the capacity to support Human colonisation, though Arkhas III is but a temperate rocky desert, with no indigenous life to speak of.Unbeknownst to even the most senior officers within the Achilus Crusade, however, the Arkhas System was claimed long ago by the Deathwatch for exactly that reason, with the void station known as Watch Station Arkhas being located within the clouds that wreath the system's outermost world, the gas giant of Arkhas VII. |
Arkhona - Arkhona: Arkhona was a former Imperial Fortress World of the Kharon System, located in the galactic northern marches of the Segmentum Obscurus, in the dead centre of a void of star systems right on the edge of Imperial-settled space. Kharon is a trinary star system, consisting of three suns locked in orbit with one another. The fifth planet of the system, Arkhona is a former Fortress World first settled tens of thousands of standard years ago before the birth of the Imperium of Man.Although the settlements of Mankind at one time stretched across all of its continents, when representatives from the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos arrived recently they found that the entire Human population of Arkhona had been destroyed, later determined to be the result of an unexpected incursion by the Tyranids. Shortly afterwards, the Inquisitors themselves were lost under terrible circumstances, thus setting the terrible events of the conflict on Arkhona into motion. |
Arkhona - Eternal Crusade: Arkhona was the world that served as the setting for the massively-multiplayer online third-person shooter game Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade, where players taking on the roles of the Craftworld Aeldari, Space Marines, Orks or Chaos Space Marines could battle each other in massive online battles. |
Arkio - Arkio: Arkio, known as "Arkio the Blessed" and the "Reborn Angel," was a Space Marine of the Blood Angels Chapter who became the unwitting pawn of the Chaos God Tzeentch and one of his servants, the vile Lord of Change Malfallax.Arkio was mutated through the power of Chaos to possess a pair of angel wings in order that he might resemble the Blood Angels' Primarch Sanguinius as part of a Chaos plot to take control of the Blood Angels Chapter for the Changer of Ways.Arkio was eventually confronted and killed by his biological brother and fellow Blood Angel Sergeant Rafen at the Battle of Sabien, saving the Blood Angels from the outbreak of an internecine war within their Chapter. |
Arkio - History: Arkio was the biological brother of Rafen, two Space Marines who served within the Blood Angels Chapter. They were a rarity, for it was most uncommon to have two siblings from a single generation found suitable for recruitment to a single Chapter as Astartes. Due to their continued sibling rivalry, Arkio attempted to strike out on his own and forge his own destiny within the Chapter's annals.He eventually took a posting aboard the battle barge Bellus. To great fanfare and good omens among the Chapter faithful, Bellus had been sent on its way a solar decade earlier by Lord Commander Dante himself, the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels. Crewed with a hand‐picked force of Blood Angels warriors on an assignment to recover an artefact of the Chapter that dated back to the Horus Heresy, the Bellus' quest was to recover the archeotech device known as the Spear of Telesto, an object thought lost in the confusion of those dark times over ten Terran millennia before.It was only through the chance discovery of a storehouse of documents on the world of Evangelion that the Chapter had learned that the artefact still existed, and under the command of Ramius Stele -- a Puritan Inquisitor of a most rigid nature trusted by both the Chapter and the highest levels of the Ecclesiarchy -- Dante sent the Bellus to the Ork‐held worlds on the borders of the Segmentum Obscurus.Every Blood Angel had seen the Tapestries of Riga that hung in the silent cloister of their fortress-monastery on Baal. They depicted their primarch Sanguinius and the Spear of Telesto in action against the Slaughter‐Lord Mor‐roga. The great battle was rendered in threads dyed a million shades of red, every strand coloured in the blood of a fallen brother. And across the vast, heavy landscapes of dull ruby, the golden archangel Sanguinius who was their Chapter's founder was shown -- his beautiful face in its most terrible aspect, driving back the tide of Chaos. In every panel, the holy spear blazed like a shard of the sun. Many battle-brothers often found themselves wondering what it would be like to hold the haft of a weapon that once belonged to their eternal liege.It had been a challenging campaign, but the Blood Angels had been blessed. The Bellus had successfully recovered the sacred Chapter artefact and word of their imminent return had been spoken throughout the Chapter for many solar months. During this expedition, Arkio had been promoted to the position of honour guard for the Sanguinary Priest Sachiel. But unknown to Arkio, he had also unwittingly been chosen as a pawn of the Chaos-corrupted Inquisitor Stele, to be manipulated and corrupted, part of a scheme intended to ultimately plunge the Blood Angels Chapter into a civil war which would result in their inevitable destruction.Stele had somehow managed to plant a Warp-spawned "egg" (magically crafted by the Lord of Change Malfallax himself) into the spinal column of Arkio, which would slowly mutate the unsuspecting Arkio into the very visage of the Blood Angels' long-dead primarch.The Bellus had traveled to the Cemetery World of Cybele to help assist the beleaguered Blood Angels force that guarded the planet that was being besieged by a large force of Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines led by the Dark Apostle Iskavan the Hated. Arkio led a daring raid to infiltrate the enemy-held spaceport, turning its ordnance on the Chaos Grand Cruiser Ogre Lord which hung low in Cybele's orbit.The missiles launched from the spaceport destroyed the Chaotic warship. During the Blood Angels' assault on the planet's surface, Arkio helped save the life of the Sanguinary Priest Sachiel from a rampaging Daemon. Despite the forces arrayed against them, the Blood Angels rallied behind the valiant Arkio, managing to successfully turn the tide against their attackers and carry the day. Later on, aboard the Bellus, Rafen was reunited with his sibling.The Bellus pursued the apparently fleeing Word Bearers to their base on the world of Shenlong, against Lord Commander Dante's explicit orders to remain on Cybele. En route to Shenlong aboard the Bellus, the Blood Angels honoured their brothers who had fallen on Cybele. As reward for his valiant deeds, Inquisitor Stele had Arkio come forward and presented him with a lengthy case of solid titanium, its surface intricately worked with the symbols of the Chapter, the Imperium and the Ordo Hereticus.In recognition of his daring, Arkio was chosen to present the Spear of Telesto to his Chapter. As he laid his hands upon the sacred artefact, the radiance of the weapon swept across the length of the grand chamber in a wave of pale golden light. Caught up in the moment, unbidden, Arkio broke protocol and touched the ageless lance, lifting it from its case. A pulse of white light flared, and all the Blood Angels present witnessed a miracle, as the light seemed to make Arkio appear as if he were Sanguinius himself.Soon word of the "miracle" within the grand chamber spread throughout the decks of the Bellus. Arkio's presentation of the Spear rekindled the bright fury of the Blood Angels and for the survivors on Cybele it became a rallying point. Men who had stood with Rafen and been ready to welcome death with open arms changed overnight. Suddenly they became fierce and blood‐hungry. During firing rites and maintenance duties, even in the midst of daily battle drills, conversations turned towards the Battle‐Brother the men had come to call "the Blessed", and the burning need for vengeance on the denizens of Shenlong, where the surviving Word Bearer Traitor Marines had fled.During the assault on Shenlong, Rafen's closest friend, Sergeant Koris, was afflicted by visions of the Blood Angels' primarch at the time of his death. Succumbing to the Black Rage, the valiant Blood Angel fought alongside his fellow battle-brothers of the Death Company like a Space Marine possessed, taking horrific wounds for his efforts. As he lay dying, the agony of his grave wounds granted him a moment of lucidity. He warned his friend Rafen to beware of Inquisitor Stele and to be wary of his sibling Arkio, for he had been cursed with the powers to destroy the Blood Angels.Whilst assaulting the Ikari fortress on Shenlong, Inquisitor Stele, Arkio and seven of the Inquisitor's honour guard teleported into the midst of the Word Bearers. Arkio carried the Spear of Telesto into battle, summoning forth the righteous power of the sacred artefact. The unleashed energy from the mighty weapon vapourised the traitorous Chaos Space Marines, leaving the Blood Angels unscathed.Those that witnessed this second "miracle" were led to believe that Arkio was truly blessed, and could be none other than the Primarch Sanguinius Reborn. Despite being a witness to such miraculous events, there were still lingering doubts in Rafen's mind. Word of Arkio's miraculous deeds quickly spread amongst the the Shenlongi people. Soon they began to make pilgrimages to see Arkio the Blessed, the Reborn Angel. Believing that he had grown beyond the servitude of an average, line Astartes, Arkio had his loyal Space Marine followers forge for him a set of golden Artificer Armour like that once worn by the Blood Angels' beloved primarch.As Arkio continued to be manipulated by the events set in motion by Stele, a large gathering of Shenlongi pilgrims took place before the fortress. Arkio informed the people of Shenlong that their battle had not yet ended, and that the corrupted still concealed themselves in their cities. They would not be free until every last Chaos adherent was found. Confused, the flowing crowd hesitated. Arkio warned them that if they did not answer him that harsh measures would be taken. Without warning, a dozen Shenlongi surged to their feet and raced forwards in a strange madness, begging to be punished.On pure reflex, the Blood Angels opened fire into the crowds, gunning down the people who rushed at them. To Rafen's horror, the Shenlongi welcomed the bolter rounds with open arms. Later, Arkio finally confronted the hated Dark Apostle Iskavan in personal combat. During their titanic struggle, large white seraphic wings emerged from Arkio's back, destroying the rear portion of his armour. Appearing as a living avatar of the blessed primarch, Arkio summoned the Spear to his hand and proceeded to kill the Traitor Marine.Following this miraculous transformation, Arkio now believed he truly was Sanguinius Reborn. He moved to quickly assume the Imperial governorship of the planet and began to raise a thousands-strong army known as the "Warriors of the Reborn" from the ranks of the Shenlongi people. Together, they would begin a mighty Blood Crusade in which Arkio the Blessed would reunite all the Blood Angels under his banner, taking stewardship of the Chapter from Lord Commander Dante.The doubting Rafen managed to to send a vox-signal to the Blood Angels homeworld of Baal, informing them of the events that had occurred on Cybele and Shenlong. Dante received the clandestine transmission and decided to have Chief Librarian Mephiston send Epistolary Vode and Captain Gallio aboard the cruiser Amareo to Shenlong to determine the full extent of the events that had transpired. Dante felt that the use of the relic so blatantly and without his sanction was troubling.Upon arriving at Shenlong, the Epistolary Vode was permitted to have an audience with Arkio. Sensing the evil that lurked within him, and enraged at the audacity of Arkio daring to usurp their primarch's blessed name, he attacked the upstart with his Force Axe. In the fighting that ensued, Vode and Captain Gallio were both killed. Arkio then ordered the Bellus to fire upon the Amareo, destroying it. Sanguinary Priest Sachiel, Arkio's emissary, sent word to Dante on Baal, requesting his personal audience on the Shrine World of Sabien in 9 solar days.But instead, Chief Librarian Mephiston went in his stead aboard the battle barge Europae. While waiting for the Chief Librarian to arrive, Arkio spent too much time in the chapel in the presence of the Spear of Telesto. The sacred relic somehow managed to trigger rampant mutations all over Arkio's body, causing the Spear to reject him.Arkio also experienced a prescient vision of his brother Rafen impaling him through the heart with the Spear. These mutations were barely halted by Inquisitor Stele's latent psychic abilities, who convinced Arkio that this dire vision had been granted by Sanguinius himself, and that it would only come to pass if they failed in their endeavours.Mephiston soon arrived upon the Shrine World to judge the so-called "Reborn Angel." Turning his powerful witch-sight upon the upstart, the Librarian quickly discerned the carefully hidden Chaos corruption that had been implanted within Arkio's body. He was surprised when Arkio was still able to hold the sacred artefact. Unconvinced by his supposed "divinity," Mephiston denounced Arkio as being false and Inquisitor Stele as a Heretic.The Chief Librarian then proceeded to challenge Arkio to a duel, for if he truly was the re-manifestation of the Angel himself, he would be able to best any warrior that lived, or so it was written in the Book of Lords. Having survived the attempts on his life by the Warriors of the Reborn, Rafen managed to arrive just before the duel took place, and offered to fight in Mephiston's stead.The Lord of Death granted Rafen the honour of facing his sibling. Though Arkio had the advantage of inhuman strength granted by his mutations, Rafen was still the more experienced warrior. During the resulting battle, Arkio attempted to use the power of the Spear against his brother, but the relic refused to respond to Arkio's attempts as it would not harm a true Son of Baal.During their struggle, Rafen managed to severely wound Arkio when he cut one of his wings, which bled foul black ichor, revealing the true corruption within. Shocked by this revelation, Arkio fled the field of battle. Suddenly the Warriors of the Reborn and Mephiston's forces turned upon one another when the corrupted Inquisitor Stele killed the Sanguinary Priest Sachiel and blamed the deed upon Mephiston. In the midst of this internecine conflict the Word Bearers suddenly arrived.Mephiston informed Rafen that if he failed in his mission, he had ordered the Europae to destroy Sabien with a barrage of Cyclonic Torpedoes. Rafen insisted that he would end his brother's threat to the Chapter. He was given a Jump Pack in order for him to be able to fight Arkio on equal footing in the air. Rafen confronted his erstwhile brother in the ruins of an old Imperial cathedral. Fueled by his irrational hate for his sibling during the confrontation, Arkio's mutations were fully revealed in all their dark glory.The Spear of Telesto finally rejected him, as Arkio was now a minion of Chaos, burning white-hot until he was forced to drop the sacred weapon. Arkio's visage took on a horrible aspect as a bloody-handed, vampiric red angel. Arkio then attempted to kill Rafen with tooth and claw but Rafen managed to fend off his sibling's attack with his Combat Knife.Rafen struck violently, bringing his weapon about and thrusting upward between his brother's ribs. Screaming in agony, Arkio tumbled away from Rafen, and fell to the ground. The upright Spear twitched and jerked of its own accord, shifting and turning about its axis until the teardrop blade was brought to meet him. Arkio plunged into the blade, which punctured between his shoulder blades, bisecting his primary heart and exploding through his sternum.Rafen eventually came upon the prostrate form of his fallen brother. With regret, Arkio begged his sibling's forgiveness, and Rafen gave it. Picking up his brother's fallen form, Rafen carried it towards the internecine battle which still raged between Mephiston's and Arkio's followers. From atop a gutted tower of a long-fallen cathedral of the Imperial Cult, Rafen informed his battle-brothers of their folly; they had been betrayed and led blindly by the false hand of Chaos.He tipped Arkio's corpse over the ledge and let gravity take the winged body from him. The dead man tumbled end over end, ruined wings flapping, to land in a broken heap upon the cathedral steps. Realising their error, Arkio's former followers renounced the Reborn, and with renewed vigour fell upon their true enemies, the Word Bearers.In the aftermath, the Blood Angels conducted the necessary rituals of purgation, and the body of Arkio was burned on a great funeral pyre by Rafen as a last sign of respect for a Blood Angel who had been duped into heresy. Rafen was offered the captaincy of the 6th Company by Lord Commander Dante, but he declined respectfully. Rafen felt that he had not yet earned the right to hold such an esteemed rank. He would earn it on his own. Instead he asked Mephiston to grant clemency and compassion for those of his battle-brothers who had strayed. |
Arkos the Faithless - Arkos the Faithless: Arkos the Faithless, also known as the "Scion of Alpharius," was the Chaos Lord of the Alpha Legion warband known as The Faithless.Since the Horus Heresy, this vile Chaos Lord has continued the Long War against the "Corpse Emperor" and His unwitting servants. Arkos continued to stir up dissension and rebellion within the realm of Mankind until he met his eventual fate during the Siege of Vraks late in the 41st Millennium.Confronted by a strike team composed of Loyalist Astartes drawn from the Angels of Absolution and the Dark Angels Chapters, Arkos was eventually captured and brought back to the Dark Angels' mobile fortress-monastery, The Rock, as a prisoner. |
Arkos the Faithless - History: Arkos was once a loyal Space Marine captain, a proud officer of the Alpha Legion during the Great Crusade, but during the Horus Heresy, he, along with the rest of the XXth Legion followed the Arch-Traitor Horus into damnation.As would later be discovered Arkos became one of the most trusted servants of the Primarch Omegon, twin to the Primarch Alpharius, and acted as his equerry while the Alpha Legion conducted its own campaign against the Loyalist forces.After Horus' defeat at the hands of the Emperor at the Siege of Terra, Arkos fled alongside the remains of his Legion to the Eye of Terror and continued the Alpha Legion's Long War against the False Emperor at every opportunity that has presented itself ever since.He led a powerful warband of Alpha Legion Space Marines from his personal Despoiler-class Battleship, Anarchy's Heart. Arkos had spent the long millennia after the end of the Heresy raiding Imperial space from the Eye of Terror, attacking Imperial shipping lanes, and cultivating agent provocateurs who spread discontent, sedition and false rumours, especially in sectors close to the Eye of Terror.His Alpha Legion warband were also known to supply captured weapons and training to selected Chaos Cultists.Arkos' warband sometimes masqueraded as Loyalist Space Marines in order to infiltrate small units of Heretic Astartes onto Imperial worlds. These units then acted as saboteurs and commandos behind enemy lines.Arkos planned such daring missions very carefully. Usually he preferred to orchestrate attacks from his warship and allow his lesser, mortal minions to do the fighting.Arkos was a master of subtle and devious schemes. He planned carefully and rarely fought a battle in which he did not already possess a tactical advantage.As a true son of Alpharius, his Primarch's gene-seed ran strong in his blood, making him a master of the more shadowy arts of war. Like his Primarch, Arkos was a potent inspiration to his Astartes and those lesser mortals he led into battle. |
Arkos the Faithless - Siege of Vraks: The Faithless took part in the Siege of Vraks, a 17-year-long campaign of attrition waged by the Imperium to retake the important Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime from the forces of Chaos.Seven standard years after the first shots were fired, in 820.M41, new reports reached the commanders of the 88th Siege Army on the world of Thracian Primaris that the Vrakisian Renegades had been reinforced by unknown Space Marines garbed in dark blue Power Armour.These mysterious Astartes launched swift attacks that destroyed an entire regiment of the Death Korps of Krieg when they attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Traitors' lines.In truth, Arkos' battleship Anarchy's Heart had crept into the Vraks System and its Chaos Space Marines had landed openly at Vraks Prime's starport.Disguised as newly deployed Loyalist Space Marines, The Faithless had infiltrated through the Death Korps' lines and, under the guise of launching an attack, crossed no-man's land to reach the Renegades' lines before making for the Citadel, the headquarters of the Apostate Cardinal-Astra Xaphan, the leader of the Renegades and the man whose corruption by Chaos had initiated the conflict.Arkos and his followers presented themselves at the Citadel, offering his support in the name of all the Chaos Gods.Arkos offered not only his superb Veteran Astartes, who were masters at conducting bloody raids that generated disruption behind enemy lines, but also training for the Renegade's less-skilled militia forces. Arkos himself could add his own tactical experience to the defensive campaign.He also promised more allies to follow, other warbands who would hear of Vraks, and they too would join their cause against the False Emperor and his corrupt Imperium. His aid gratefully accepted, Lord Arkos and his veteran brothers were immediately put to work. |
Arkos the Faithless - Battle of the Vraks Starport: In 821.M41, Supreme Grand Master Azrael lead nearly half of the Dark Angels Chapter to the beleaguered world of Vraks Prime to aid the Imperial war effort. The Dark Angels force arrived on board the Battle Barge Angel of Retribution, the Strike Cruisers Sword of Caliban and Salvation and a small number of Escorts to bring the might of the Loyalist Astartes against the forces of Chaos that had seized the small Imperial planet.Without communicating his intentions to the other Imperial forces, Azrael simply set about his self-assigned mission -- the destruction of Vraks' starport which would sever any easy access to off-planet reinforcements for the Chaos occupiers.Needing no assistance, Azrael saw no reason to involve the Imperial Guard regiments engaged on Vraks in his operation. Moving in a lightning assault, the Dark Angels' vanguard was led by Azrael himself.As the Dark Angels strike force moved through the starport they unleashed unrestrained destruction upon it. The Dark Angels fought for Vraks' starport for eight days before Azrael ordered the final assault.Leading elements of the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 8th and 9th Companies the Supreme Grand Master led his Dark Angels to finish the enemy's resistance and finally overrun the starport. Dismounting his Land Raider, Azrael led the assault as he plunged into the enemy ranks of militia men, his black blade, the Sword of Secrets, cutting a bloody swathe.As the Dark Angels were about to achieve victory, the duplicitous Alpha Legion sprung their trap. The Chaos Space Marines had been lying in wait, using the militia as bait to draw the Dark Angels on. As the fighting intensified Azrael saw Brother Anmael fall, riddled with fire, and the sacred Chapter standard he was brandishing toppled.Azrael knew he must recover the banner for it could not be allowed to lie in the dust. Racing through enemy fire he reached the banner just as the enemy did. The Dark Angels and Alpha Legionaries fought over the fallen body of Brother Anmael, neither giving ground.While the other Dark Angels fought to escape the Alpha Legion's sudden ambush, Azrael cut down the last of his enemies and plucked up the sacred standard. As he did so, a massive armoured figure stroke through the smoke, his ancient power armour decorated with blasphemous runes and the heretical eight-pointed star of Chaos Undivided.As he did so an Assault Marine launched himself into Arkos' path, only to be cut clean in half by the stroke of the Chaos Lord's Warp-powered blade. The two mighty heroes clashed.Azrael was confronted by Arkos, and soon the two were engaged in furious combat. In one hand Azrael held his Chapter's sacred Standard of Devastation, in the other the Sword of Secrets. The two rained down smashing blows upon each others' armour, until blood seeped through the joints of Azrael's suit of Artificer Armour.The weight of Arkos' mighty blows had badly wounded the Supreme Grand Master in the one-sided duel. The Chaos Lord had the combined power of the four Chaos Gods with him this day.Arkos' blows forced Azrael ever backwards, weakening his opponent until a shoulder charge and a fast, low sweeping cut sent Azrael sprawling to the ground, the Sword of Secrets skittering from his grasp.Prone amongst the rubble, the banner still clutched to him, Azrael saw death approaching as Arkos loomed over him, raising his Darkblade for the killing blow.As he reached out to strike the blow that would see Azrael's reign as Supreme Grand Master end, the impacts of an Assault Cannon sent Arkos staggering backwards. Racing up the street came Deathwing Terminators led by Interrogator-Chaplain Belphegor, who, enclosed in his black Terminator Armour, charged into Arkos, his Crozius Arcanum swinging.Belphegor managed to strike the Traitor to the ground with a blow that cracked his Power Armour. Arkos fell dazed and bleeding. Concerned for his wounded commander, the chaplain turned to aid him. When he turned back to face Arkos, the Traitor had vanished.Though the ambush had inflicted painful losses upon the Dark Angels, the Traitors were unable to carry the day, and soon drifted away as they had been recalled by their thwarted commander. The Dark Angels proceeded to hunt down and destroy the remnants of surviving militiamen.The Faithless' ambush had inflicted painful losses on the Dark Angels, with the loss of 200 battle-brothers, but the Traitors could not win this battle alone.The Dark Angels had failed to take a single Traitor Legionary alive, although their Battle Barge's cells did contain many captured Renegade militiamen who would face the formidable Interrogator-Chaplains on return to The Rock.After ten solar days the starport was securely in the hands of the Dark Angels. They set about destroying the facility with demolition charges. Two days later, the starport was damaged beyond repair. Upon completing their mission, the Dark Angels strike force departed Vraks Prime. |
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